«rie 



RAMMAR 











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L-» C- 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



THE ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR 

By ALFRED S. WEST, M.A., 

Trinity College, Cambridge, Fellow of University College, 
London. Pp. xii., 304. Price 2s. 6a 7 . Seventieth Thousand. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

Guardian. — It is far and away the best of its class hitherto pub- 
lished for boys of thirteen to sixteen years of age, and, if we mistake 
not, will soon become a standard text in secondary schools and mark 
a new epoch in the teaching of English grammar. Mr West's work 
reveals the learning of the scholar and the instinct of the teacher. It 
is interesting without triviality, scientific without pedantry, eclectic 
without scrappiness, and stimulating to thought to a degree un- 
approached by any other grammar we know. 

New York Critic. — Without exception, the best book of its com- 
pass for school use that we have met with. It would be an excellent 
text-book for high-schools and academies, and an invaluable manual of 
reference for teachers of grammar in the lower grades of schools. They 
will find it full of useful suggestions for oral instruction and written 
exercises. We strongly advise all friends of education to examine it. 

Scotsman. — It is designed more particularly to meet the needs of 
pupils from thirteen to seventeen years of age, but it is so thorough-going 
and scholarly that anyone seeking guidance in matters of grammar 
might consult it with advantage. Its full equipment of examination 
questions makes it specially valuable for school purposes, and it will 
doubtless soon be in wide use. 

Practical Teacher. — An intelligent person can scarcely fail to find 
this book interesting. ...Not only is the treatment unconventional, but 
there is such liveliness of style, and such evidence of humour in the 
arguments and examples, as make a great part of the work positively 
amusing. ...The book, however, is not only marked by an interesting 
mode of presenting the matter, but it is very thorough, and our every- 
day speech is subjected to keen and searching criticism. Indeed, we 
have read the volume from beginning to end with unabated interest. 
The summary of definitions in the appendix is very concise and com- 
prehensive and the examples for analysis are, like those scattered 
throughout the volume, remarkably well chosen. 



Key to Questions contained in West's Elements 

of English Grammar and English Grammar for Beginners. 
By A. S. West, M.A. Cloth. Pp. 112. Price 3^. 6d. net. 

Guardian. — A Key to West's Grammars arranged by Mr West 
himself, will be useful to several classes of readers. Private students 
will find it almost indispensable ; to examination candidates it affords 
object lessons as to how to go at once to the root of the matter and 
how to answer questions in the shortest and most effective way ; and 
teachers who have not the arrangement of the books at their fingers' 
ends will be glad, when explaining difficulties, to have at hand references 
to the sections of the texts that relate to them. The Key, again, is not 
a mere answer book, for its pages' contain a good deal of etymological 
and other grammatical information with careful discussion of difficult 
points, and will thus be a useful supplement to the grammars themselves. 

Pope's Essay on Criticism. By the same Editor. 

Pp. viii., 170. Price 2s. Second Edition. 

Educational Times. — Mr West's book is not only useful as a 
"text with notes"; it is also scholarly and interesting. Pie has worked 
with the true literary instinct, and his treatment of the Essay on 
Criticism is in this respect notably above the level of what we are 
accustomed to in school editions of isolated works. 

Bacon's Essays. By the same Editor. Pp. xx., 302. 

Price in Cloth, $s. 6d. Half-parchment, gilt top, 55. 2nd Edition. 

Scotsman. — It is an excellent edition of this classic, not only for 
students of English language and literature, but for a general reader 
who wishes to read the celebrated essays with understanding. 

Earle's Microcosmography. By the same Editor. 

Pp. xlviii., 160. Price in Cloth, 3.?. Half- parchment, 4s. 

Journal of Education.— Every one will agree in thinking highly 
of Mr West's editing. 



LONDON : C. J. CLAY and SONS, 

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, 
AVE MARIA LANE. 



Pitt Press Series 



ENGLISH GRAMMAR 



FOR 



BEGINNERS. 



ENGLISH GRAMMAR 



FOR BEGINNERS. 



BY 



ALFRED S. WEST, M.A. 
n 

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, 
FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 



OV 



u 



V 




(SEVENTY-SIXTH TO HUNDREDTH THOUSAND) 



CAMBRIDGE: 

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 

1903 



n> v 






First Edition, February 1895. 

Second Edition (stereotyped) October 1895. 

Reprinted 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1903. 



BY TRA* S ^ R 



JLb 13 1 



- iVH* 



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^ 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Scope and Divisions of Grammar i 

II. Elementary Sounds in English 4 

III. The English Alphabet ...... 8 

IV. The Parts of Speech 12 

V. Nouns 19 

VI. Inflexion of Nouns. — I. Gender .... 24 

VII. Inflexion of Nouns.— II. Number .... 28 

VIII. Inflexion of Nouns. — III. Case 33 

IX. Adjectives 39 

X. Pronouns 45 

XI. yerbs 52 

XII. The Verb Finite . . . . . . . . .57 

XIII. The Verb Infinite . , ... . . .69 

XIV. Adverbs and Prepositions 76 

XV. Conjunctions and Interjections 80 

XVI. Word-Building . . . . . . . .85 

XVII. Syntax 90 

XVIII. Analysis of Sentences and Parsing , . . . 105 

Index . • • • , 119 



NOTE. — If Chapters II and III are considered too 
difficult or too uninteresting to be read at the 
outset \ they may be postponed until pupils have 
made considerable progress in the book or reached 
the end of it. 



ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR 
BEGINNERS. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Scope and Divisions of Grammar. 

1. Importance of the Study of English Gram- 
mar. — When boys and girls begin to learn English Grammar, 
they are apt to start with a prejudice that the study is 
likely to prove useless and certain to prove dull : — useless, 
because Grammar is supposed to "teach a person how to 
speak and write correctly," and they can speak and write 
correctly enough already; dull, because grammarians, like 
the men of whom Jack Cade complained, " usually talk of 
a noun and a verb," and in talk of this sort there is not 
much charm. Now, the dullness of a subject is a matter of 
personal taste, and about tastes it is idle to dispute. If 
anybody finds Grammar dull, he has a right to his opinion 
and a right to express it. But the usefulness of a subject 
is a question not of taste but of fact, and a word or two 
may be said with advantage at the outset, in answer to the 
inquiry, — What is the good of learning Grammar? 

In the first place, as one part of the business of 
Grammar is to deal with correct forms of expression, and 
to point out, not merely that some forms are wrong, but 
also why they are wrong, it is clear that a person who has 
studied Grammar is more likely to avoid common errors in 
speech and writing than one who has not The habit of 
mixing with educated people, and of reading well-written 
books, will doubtless do vastly more, than can be done by 
W. G. P I 



2 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

studying Grammar, to keep a man from making grammatical 
blunders ; but the study of Grammar will help. 

We can give much better reasons than this, however, 
for occupying ourselves with English Grammar. It is by 
means of the English language that we carry on trains of 
thought in our own minds, and convey our meaning to the 
minds of other people. Time and trouble will therefore be 
well spent in learning something of the nature of an instru- 
ment, which performs services of such great importance. 
An artisan, who is occupied year after year in using a 
complicated piece of machinery, must be a dull drudge, if 
his curiosity is never aroused about the way in which the 
machine performs its work. An artisan, whose mind is 
active and alert, does not content himself with merely 
turning taps and lifting handles. He acquires a knowledge 
of each part of the machine, and of the service which each 
part contributes towards the work of the machine as a 
whole. This knowledge makes him a more competent 
mechanic, enabling him, if the machine at any time goes 
wrong, to put his finger on the faulty spot. It also adds 
to his stock of ideas, and thereby makes him a more 
intelligent man. 

Now the English language is a complicated instrument, 
which is used by us all every day of our lives, and we ought 
to aim, not merely at using it correctly, but at using it, as 
an intelligent workman uses his machine, with some under- 
standing of its nature. Consider, too, the range over which 
the English language extends. It is the language spoken 
to-day by millions in North America, in Australia, in South 
Africa. It is the language in which, during many centuries, 
great writers have given their thoughts to the world, — the 
language of Chaucer, of Shakespeare, of Milton, of Words- 
worth, of Tennyson. Its history and its character certainly 
have claims on our attention, and something of its history 
and character the study of English Grammar will teach. 

2. Grammar is the science which deals with 
language and its correct use. By a science we mean 



SCOPE AND DIVISIONS OF GRAMMAR. 3 

a collection of facts and principles arranged in an orderly 
fashion. Accordingly, English Grammar brings together 
facts concerning the English language, and states the 
principles which are observed when it is correctly used. 

A language consists of words, which may be spoken 
or written. Spoken words are sounds which convey a 
meaning, — not mere noises like the cries of the farm-yard. 
Written words are composed of letters, and suggest to us 
these sounds. The thousands of words, of which a language 
consists, may be arranged in a small number of groups, 
according to the purpose for which we employ them. The 
words in some of these groups undergo slight changes which 
produce variations in their meanings. Words do their work, 
not when they stand alone, but when they are arranged in 
such a manner as to form sentences, or, as we sometimes 
say, "to make sense." 

3. Different Parts of Grammar. — Hence we may 
expect a book on English Grammar to give us information 
on such points as the following : — 

1. Of how many simple or elementary sounds are 
English words composed? How may such sounds be 
classified? This branch of Grammar is commonly called 
Orthoepy; a better name is Phonology. 

2. How many letters are required for a perfect English 
Alphabet? What are the imperfections of our existing 
Alphabet? This branch is called Orthography. 

3. Into what classes do words fall when we group 
them according to their function, — that is, with reference 
to the sort of work which they do ? What changes of form, 
or inflexions, do they undergo to indicate variations of their 
meaning? How are words built up? This branch is 
called Etymology. 

4. When words are so placed as to form sentences, 
what principles must be observed, in order that the sentences 
may be grammatically correct? This branch is called 
Syntax- 



CHAPTER II. 
Elementary Sounds in English. 

4; Classification of Simple Sounds.— Words are 
significant sounds, — sounds which convey a meaning. Of 
such sounds we may assume that the English language 
contains about a hundred-and-fifty thousand. But these 
hundred-and-fifty thousand different sounds are formed by 
joining together simple or elementary sounds, of which in 
English there are about forty. Take, for example, the 
words bat and but Both words contain three simple or 
elementary sounds in combination, but two of these sounds, 
b and /, are the same in each. Our first business will be to 
enumerate all these simple sounds and to arrange them in 
classes. 

5. Vowels and Consonants. — The two principal 
classes consist of Vowels and Consonants. Let us ascertain 
how they differ in character. 

Pronounce the vowel-sound of a in path, or of e in feed, or of o in 
note. You can utter it at the top of your voice, as the saying is. Next 
pronounce the b in bat, not calling it bee, — for 'bee' is merely its name 
as a letter of the alphabet, — but sounding it as you would do, if you 
were going to say bat, and then changed your mind and stopped, as 
soon as the first letter had passed your lips. Do this also with the 
words dog and ten, checking yourself at the end of the d and /. In this 
way you will produce the sounds which belong properly to b, d, and /. 
They are sounds of which you can hear hardly anything at all. Now 
add a vowel after the b, d, and /; say be, day, toe, and you can make 
yourself heard a hundred yards away. 



ELEMENTARY SOUNDS IN ENGLISH. 5 

Shall we describe a Vowel, then, as a sound which can be audibly- 
pronounced when it stands alone, and a Consonant as a sound which is 
audible only when a vowel accompanies it? 

Further experiments will show that this mode of distinguishing vowels 
from consonants breaks down. Make the sound of zzz... in buzz; or 
the sound of sss..., as if you were hissing some one; or the sound of 
sh... ! as if you were telling people to be quiet ; or the sound of mmm...? 
as if you were expressing your doubt respecting a statement. These 
sounds can be heard very well without the addition of a vowel. Yet 
nobody calls them vowel-sounds. In what respect, then, do they differ 
from vowels? 

They differ in this respect. Add a vowel to a sound, such as b, d, or 
/, which is almost inaudible when pronounced alone, and the inaudible 
sound becomes audible. But add the sound of z, s, sh, or m, to 6, d, or 
/, — say bz, or dm, or ts, — and your b, d, or t can be heard no better than 
before. Put this statement to the test. By performing half-a-dozen 
experiments yourself, you will learn much more about these matters than 
by merely reading many pages of print. Try to say bm, dz, tsh. You 
can hear the m, and the z, and the sh, but the b, and the d, and the / 
have become no more audible than they were when you tried to pronounce 
them alone. Let us there/ore express the distinction thus : — 

Consonants are sounds which will not enable us to 
produce other sounds. 

Vowels are sounds by the aid of which any consonant 
can be audibly produced. 

6. Pure Vowel-sounds. — Of pure vowel-sounds we 
have in English sixteen, though there are only five letters, 
or signs, with which to express them. These sounds are 
represented in thick type in the words below*: 

Long vowels Short vowels 

fad her attend 

fur putty 

fdAry p&t 

fatal pet 

feet pit 

f&wn pot 

foeman pillow 

fOOl put 

* From Miss Soames's Introduction to Phonetics. 



6 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

Fix your attention on the sounds of these vowels : never mind about 
the spelling. The sound of the vowel in fur could have been illustrated 
just as well by the words herd, firm, work, learn, myrtle, and the 
sound of the vowel in pet by the words head, many, bury, says, heifer, 
friend, guest. 

The vowel represented by a at the beginning of attend is very 
common in English, though we have no special letter for it. You 
can hear it at the end of villa,, sudden, cupboard', in the middle of 
miraxle, tendency, harmony, at the beginning and end of America,, 
gra,mmaria,n, verandaJi. It is the sound which you can make with 
least trouble and is therefore called the Natural vowel. When you 
stick fast in saying your lessons, you fill up the pauses by making this 
sound. Observe that many words ending in r are pronounced with 
this Natural vowel in place of the r. Say hair, fear, poor, our, and you 
will hear no r. It is only when r is followed by a vowel in the next 
word that r is sounded as a consonant. Listen carefully to the difference 
when you say dear aunt and dear me, poor Ellen and poor Tom. 

7. Diphthongs. — Two vowel-sounds which run to 
gether in pronunciation are called Diphthongs. 

Remember that we are concerned at present with sounds, not letters. 
The a in Ccesar, as we pronounce the word, is no true diphthong : it is 
a pure vowel, like the vowel in feet. Our true English diphthongs are 
these ; 

i Yd. fine =0 (in father) + i (in pit), 
oi in noise —aw (in fawn) + e (in feet), 
ou in house = a (in father) -f u (input), 
u in mute =i (in pin) +00 (in fool). 

Notice carefully that the i in fine, though represented by a single 
letter, is a diphthong in sound. So is the u in mute. Guard against 
putting these diphthongs in the list of pure vowel-sounds. 

The long vowel-sounds in fate and foe are very rarely heard as pure 
or unmixed in English, though we have put them in the list of pure 
vowels. In standard English nowadays they are nearly always diph- 
thongs. Listen while you pronounce fate or foe slowly and you will 
find that you are saying fay-eet, or fay-it, and fo-00. This blend in the 
long sound of foe is one feature which distinguishes that sound from 
the of pillow, omit, proceed 1 the short is almost free from any 
mixture of the sound 00. 

8. Consonants. — Of these we will content ourselves with making 
out an unsorted list. From our alphabet of twenty-six letters take 
away the five vowel signs and twenty-one consonants are left. But 



ELEMENTARY SOUNDS IN ENGLISH. 7 

from this remainder, for reasons which will be given in the next chapter, 
four consonants, c, q, j, x, must be rejected. The number is thus re- 
duced to seventeen, which stand in the alphabet in the following order : 
b, d,f,g, h, k, I, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z. 

This list is however incomplete. It requires the addition of six 
more simple consonantal sounds, and the addition of these six will 
bring the total number of English consonants up to twenty-three. 

The six consonantal sounds for which we have no single letters are 
these: — the sound of zh in azure, of sh in shine, of dh in thine, of th in 
thin, of wh in where, and of ng in king. Although you see each of 
these sounds represented by two letters, you must not suppose that it is 
a compound. The sound of z in azure is different from its usual sound 
in zeal or prize. To mark this difference we write the z of azure as zh, 
but the sound is not made up of z and h : it is really a simple sound. 
Again, in the other sounds represented by sh, dh, th, wh, as a matter 
of fact there is no combination of the sound of h with s, d, t, or w. Nor 
is the ng of king a blend of n and g. It is a simple or elementary 
sound. Our only reason for writing these sounds with two letters is 
because they possess no letters or symbols of their own. 

9. Semi-vowels. — The souncte of w and y are 
commonly called Semi-vowels. 

These letters are used sometimes with the force of consonants, as in 
wit and yes, and sometimes with the force of vowels, as in few and they. 
Observe that w resembles in sound the oo of cool or u of rude, and y 
resembles in sound the long e of feet. Say oo-it quickly and it becomes 
wit. Say yes slowly and it becomes ee~es, 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Which of the following words contain true diphthongal sounds ?— ~ 
pain, noise, new, people, yeoman, build, now, found, eye, clean, rough. 

2. Write two words in which i occurs as a pure vowel and two in 
which it occurs as a diphthong. Show in the same way that u may 
stand for a pure vowel or for a diphthong. 

3. From the list contained in § 6 select the word illustrating the 
vowel-sound which is represented by the italicised letter or letters 
in each of the following words : — Raw, cterk, sew, stern, fWd, plaid, 
bury, pretty, what, fruit, wolf, love, chief, l^pard, w^men, door, slw, 
could, broad, day, guard, guarantee, marine, busy, carriage, soul, 
manoeuvre, learn, does, aunt, haunt, journal, tow, pr<?ve, f<?te. 

4. If we had single letters to represent the simple sounds sometimes 
denoted by sh, th, and ng, in which of the following words should we 
use them? — shoot, disheartened, dishevelled, dishonoured, grasshopper, 
thicV, hoMouse, Wording, ElMam, ringing, engage, anger, danger. 



CHAPTER III. 
The English Alphabet, 

10. Requirements of a Perfect Alphabet. — 
We will now turn our attention to the signs, or letters, by 
which sounds are indicated in writing. The collection of 
these signs, or letters, is called the Alphabet. 

A perfect alphabet would fulfil these two conditions : — 
i. Every simple or elementary sound would have a 

separate letter. 

2. No simple or elementary sound would have more 

than one letter. 

11. The English Alphabet tested.— Is the English 
alphabet a perfect one ? Does it fulfil these two conditions ? 

It certainly does not fulfil the first. There are sixteen 
simple vowel-sounds in the language, whilst there are only 
five letters to express them. Then, again, under the head 
of consonants, letters are lacking to represent the sounds of 
zh, shy dh, thy why ng, all of which are simple. Thus the 
alphabet is short of letters to the extent of eleven vowel- 
signs and six consonant-signs, — seventeen letters in all, — 
and to supply the place of these we have recourse to various 
shifts. 

Try the alphabet by the second test. Does it contain 
any letters which are not needed? Is it extravagant in 
having too much, at the same time that it is badly off in 
not having nearly enough ? 

The alphabet must plead guilty on this charge also, 



THE ENGLISH ALPHABET. g 

though its faults in the way of excess are far less serious 
than its faults in the way of deficiency. It contains four 
letters, which would be absent from a perfect alphabet, viz., 
<r, q,j, x. 

Why is c a superfluous letter ? 

Because it represents no sound not already represented 
by k, s, or sh. Take c out of the alphabet, and we could 
write kat, sity, speshal, instead of cat, city, special, and in 
thus writing these words, we should be writing them ac- 
cording to their pronunciation. 

The letters j and x would be removed for a different 
reason. They represent sounds which are not elementary 
at all. Now it is no business of the alphabet to furnish us 
with short-hand symbols which stand for compound sounds. 
The letter j represents a compound of d and the zh of 
azure : jest is really d+zh + est 

Similarly x represents a compound of k and s, or of g 
and z : box is really bo + k + s, exert is really e + g + z + ert. 

Lastly, consider the case of a, which is always written 
with a u after it In quay it has the sound of k, and in 
queen it has the sound of k + w. In both instances it expresses 
only what we can express quite well without it, and it is 
therefore superfluous, or redundant. 

12. Extent to which our Alphabet is Imper- 
fect. — We are now in a position to take stock of our alphabet, 
and of the simple sounds which it is supposed to represent. 

The alphabet contains twenty-six letters, but four of 
these (c 9 j f q, x,) we have seen reasons for rejecting as 
useless. This reduces the available assets of the alphabet 
to twenty-two letters. 

On the other side of the account we have the following 
claims presented by elementary sounds, for each of which 
we ought to have a separate letter : — 
1 6 vowel-sounds, 
23 consonant sounds, 
making a total of 39 elementary sounds. 



io ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

Our alphabet is clearly in an insolvent condition, for it 
contains only 22 letters, with which to satisfy the demands 
of 39 sounds requiring a letter apiece. 

It is customary, moreover, to put in a claim for separate 
letters to represent the diphthongs, though indeed the justice 
of the claim is not quite obvious. For diphthongs are blends, 
or compounds, of two sounds, and the right way of repre- 
senting these blends would therefore seem to be this, — to put 
alongside of each other the vowel-signs which stand for the 
combining vowel-sounds. But in most books on Grammar 
you will find four diphthongs added to the list of sounds 
requiring separate letters, and with this addition our 39 sounds 
will be increased to 43 sounds, the needs of which we have 
to meet as best we can with 22 letters. 

13. Devices for supplying the place of missing letters. — The 

work of some of the twenty letters which are missing is often done in a 
very unscientific fashion. Notice, for example, the devices in use to 
show that an e or an is to be pronounced long. With their separate 
signs for short e and long e, short and long o, the Greeks were in this 
respect better off than ourselves. 

We know that a vowel is long — 

1, if a mute e comes at the end of the word; as gate, note, site: 

2, if an a is inserted after the vowel ; as neat, coat: 

3, if the vowel is doubled; zsfeed, cool. 

These three processes are illustrated by the words mete, meat, meet. 

The want of consistency in English spelling is astonishing. Look at 
the following ways of representing the sound of a as it occurs in fate : — 
laid, rein, jay, prey, gauge, gaol, br<t2Jz. Make similar illustrations for 
yourself of the ways in which the sound of as in no, or of e as in me, is 
sometimes expressed in writing. 

Then, again, observe on the other hand how the same letter, or 
collection of letters, stands at different times for various sounds : — how, 
for example, s has one sound in sin, another in praise, a third in 
measure, a fourth in mansion, and no sound at all in isle. Think of as 
many words as you can, which contain the combination ough, pro- 
nounced differently in each. 

The result of our inquiry compels us to condemn the 
English alphabet, as (1) Defective, (2) Redundant, (3) In- 
consistent. 



THE ENGLISH ALPHABET. n 

14. Why is English spelling so difficult ? — 
i. Because the alphabet is defective, and its defi- 
ciencies are supplied by different devices in different words. 

2. Because our spelling has been pretty well fixed for 
nearly three centuries, whereas the pronunciation has pro- 
bably changed greatly in the interval. 

3. Because our words came to us from many sources, 
and we have kept the spelling which they had in the 
languages from which we took them, whilst we pronounce 
the words in our own fashion. 

15. Use of Capital Letters. — Before we leave the subject of the 
Alphabet, let us give an answer to the question, — When are Capital 
letters to be used? 

1. At the beginning of every sentence. 

2. At the beginning of every line in poetry. 

3. At the beginning of quoted passages: e.g. He said, 'Let us go 
and see.' 

4. For Proper names, and for the names of days, months, etc. 

5. For the various names of God. 

6. Sometimes for titles of officials and office: — 'Secretary of the 
Home Department,' 'Lord Chancellorship.' 

7. Sometimes at the beginning of nouns and adjectives, to call 
attention to their importance. Find examples in §§ 16 and 17, 

8. For the pronoun /. 

9. For the interjection O, 

QUESTIONS. 

I, What redundant letters occur in the following sentence? — 'I 
expect to find just two quires of paper in the box.' 

If these redundant letters were removed, how would you supply 
their places? 

1. Give examples — (a) of each of the sounds represented by th % 
(b) of words in which b, /, gh, £, are written but not sounded. 

3. Write six words the spelling of which differs widely from their 
pronunciation. Account for the inconsistency wherever you can. 

[Vis-count, de£t, recei/t, cou/d, hymw, sovereign, chronicle, /jour, 
Sf^ism, /salm, £now, are examples. Think of some more.] 

4. Mention words in which the sound of/ is represented by^fc or 
gh, and the sound of sh by ti or si. 

Give examples of the use of c and g to denote hard and soft sounds. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Parts of Speech. 

16. Etymology. — The words contained in our 
vocabulary may be arranged in classes, according to the 
kind of work which they do when we use them in sentences. 
Words belonging to some of these classes undergo changes 
of form, called Inflexions, by which the meaning of the 
words is modified, By certain other processes words 
entirely new are built up from old ones. 

Take, as an example, the word man. We may de- 
termine, in the first place, the class of words in which it 
must be placed, — its Part of Speech, as we say. It belongs 
to one Part of Speech in the sentence * Man is mortal/ and 
to another in the sentence ' Man the boats.' Then, again, 
the word man, in the sentence * Man is mortal/ can be 
changed by inflexion into marts, men, men's^ if occasion 
arises for these alterations, while man, in ' Man the boats/ 
can become mans, manned, manning. Construct for your- 
self sentences in which these forms occur. Lastly, from 
man we can derive new words, such as manly, manhood, 
U7iman, mannikin, mankind, manservant, and many more. 

The branch of Grammar, which treats of words in this 
way, is called Etymology. We may define it as follows : — 

Etymology deals with the classification of 
words, their inflexion, and derivation. 

17. Words must be combined to form sen- 
tences. — When we speak or write, it is rarely the case that 



THE PARTS OF SPEECH, 13 

words stand alone. They usually occur in sentences, and 
a sentence must contain more words than one. The chief 
purposes for which we use language are these : — (1) to 
make statements, (2) to ask questions, and (3) to give 
orders. Accordingly, most sentences belong to one or 
other of three kinds, respectively distinguished as (1) 
Declaratory, in which we make assertions about things, 
(2) Interrogative, and (3) Imperative. 

Can you think of any exception to the statement that a sentence 
requires at least two words? In conversation we sometimes use a word 
by itself. Thus, I may say, 'John!' But then 'John!' is merely an 
exclamation, not a sentence. In saying * John ! ' I make no statement, 
ask no question, give no command. Again, if somebody asks me, 
'Who broke the window?' and I answer 'John,' I certainly make an 
assertion, but the assertion is contained in the rest of the sentence, which 
I suppress for the sake of saving myself trouble. The person to whom 
I am speaking understands that I mean, /John broke the window,' or 
*John did/ Once more, if I say, 'Go,* have we not at length reached 
a sentence which consists of only one word? No: in this case also 
there is a word which is left out, but, though left out, it is understood. 
For when I say, 'Go,' I mean that someone is to go. Who? 'You,' 
of course. 'Go* means 'Go you/ and in old English people used to 
put the missing word in and say, 'Go thou,' or 'Go ye,' as you may see 
in the Authorized Translation of the Bible. 

These remarks about the combination of words in sentences belong 
to Syntax, but short excursions into Syntax will sometimes be necessary, 
because there are points connected with the Etymology of words which 
cannot be made clear, unless they are illustrated by sentences in which 
the words are used. 

18. The Parts of Speech.— Let us now determine 
the number of classes among which the words of our 
language may be distributed. We make the distribution 
according to the different functions performed by words 
when used in sentences. By ■ different functions ' we mean 
the special work accomplished by words of different kinds. 
We shall find that there are eight classes, and these eight 
classes are called the Parts of Speech. 

The Parts of Speech are the classes into which 
the words of a language fall, when they are 



i 4 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

arranged according to their separate functions in 
a sentence. 

19. Verbs. — We saw that every sentence requires at 
least two words. One of the two words may sometimes 
not be expressed, but though not expressed it is under- 
stood. To simplify matters, let us confine ourselves at 
present to Declaratory Sentences, — sentences in which we 
make assertions. Now it is plain that, if we make an 
assertion, there must be a word by means of which the 
assertion is made. This word is called a Verb. The term 
verb is derived from the Latin verbum, which means 'a 
word. 7 The old grammarians considered the verb the most 
important word in a sentence, when they gave it this name. 

20. Nouns. — But there is another word which is 
generally just as important as a verb. For if we make an 
assertion, there must certainly be a thing about which the 
assertion is made. The word which stands for this thing is 
called a Noun. The word noun is derived from the 
Latin nomen, which means 'a name.' When I say, ' Birds 
fly,' I make an assertion with the verb JZy, about things 
which I indicate by the noun birds. To ask whether noun 
or verb is the more necessary in this sentence seems as 
useless as to ask which blade in a pair of scissors does more 
of the cutting. We require both. 

21. Adjectives. — A good many assertions might be 
made, even if we used only nouns and verbs : e.g. i Fishes 
swim/ * Fire burns/ ' Sheep eat grass. 7 But sweeping state- 
ments of this sort, when they happen to be true, seldom 
convey fresh information : they tell people only what they 
knew already. Suppose, however, that a statement is too 
sweeping : how can we limit it ? Take, for instance, the 
sentence, 'Exercise injures boys. 7 In its present form this 
statement is the reverse of truth. Let us alter it to, * Violent 
exercise injures sickly boys. 7 This assertion is true, and 



THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 15 

possibly worth making. We have limited the i exercise/ of 
which we spoke, to one particular kind of exercise, and we 
have limited the ' boys ' to those boys who are sickly. 

The words which limit the application of nouns in this 
way are called Adjectives, and they serve a very useful 
purpose. If we had no Adjectives, how could we distinguish 
by name different varieties of a thing? If there were no 
such words as good, bad, old, nice, etc., how could we 
express our meaning, when we wished to talk of ' good 
men," good boys/ 'good wine/ 'good books/ and so on? 
We should need one noun to signify 'good man/ another 
to signify 'bad man/ a third to signify 'old man/ — in fact, as 
many different nouns as there are possible combinations of 
man with adjectives. And in like manner we should need 
new nouns for combinations of boy with these limitations, 
and of wine, and of books, with their limitations. No human 
being could retain in his mind the millions of new nouns, 
which would be required to do the work at present 
performed by adjectives. 

22. Pronouns. — Consider next this sentence: 'Brown 
has lost the book which his friend Jones lent him : they are 
pommelling each other.' The words printed in italics are 
Pronouns : they serve instead of nouns. Observe how 
the sentence would read, if the use of Pronouns were 
forbidden : ' Brown has lost the book : Brown's friend 
Jones lent Brown the book : Jones is pommelling Brown : 
Brown is pommelling Jones/ We can make ourselves 
understood, but this is a clumsy way of doing it. Take 
another example. If Brown says to Jones, ' I will buy you 
a new copy/ how are w'e to express this statement without 
using the Pronouns / and you ? Brown must say, ' Brown 
will buy Jones a new copy/ All assertions would of course 
be made in the 3rd person only, and our ordinary form of 
speech would be seriously changed. 

23. Prepositions. — Let us examine the following 
statements : — ' John lives in London/ ' John came from 



1 6 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

London/ 'John went to London,' 'John walked across 
London/ 'John drove round London/ In all these sen- 
tences we make mention of two things, John and London, 
and in each sentence the relation in which the two things 
stand is described as different. The words which mark 
these relations are called Prepositions. In any language 
Prepositions are an important Part of Speech, but in English 
they are of especial importance, because English nouns 
have lost nearly all their inflexions, and the place of these 
inflexions must be supplied by prepositions. 

24. Conjunctions. — When I say, 'You and he are 
good at football and cricket/ I compress four sentences into 
one. The four sentences are these: — 'You are good at 
football/ ' He is good at football/ ' You are good at cricket/ 
'He is good at cricket/ The word and, which enables us 
to save time and trouble by joining sentences together, is 
called a Conjunction. Two sentences are joined by if 
when I say, '(i) We will go for a walk — if— (2) it is fine/ 
Similarly thai joins two sentences, when I say, ' (1) He was 
afraid — that — (2) you were ill/ If our language contained 
no Conjunctions, we should have to use roundabout and 
awkward substitutes. Thus, instead of saying, ' We will go 
for a walk if it is fine/ ' He was afraid that you were ill/ we 
might say, ' We will go for a walk in the case of its being 
fine/ ' He was afraid of the fact of your being ill/ 

25. Adverbs. — You will recollect that Adjectives 
were said to limit the meaning of nouns. In the same 
way, Adverbs limit the assertions which we make with 
verbs. The statement ' He played cricket ' becomes more 
definite when we say, ' He played cricket yesterday, or ' He 
played cricket here] or ' He played cricket well,' or ' He 
often played cricket/ The words yesterday, here, well, often, 
are Adverbs. The absence of Adverbs would not cause us 
any great inconvenience. Thus, to take the sentences 
given above, we could easily express the same meaning by 



THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 17 

saying, i He played cricket on the previous day,' or *■ at this 
place, or * in good style,' or * on many occasions' 

26. Interjections. — To complete the list of Parts of 
Speech we must mention Interjections. When we are 
moved rather more deeply than usual, we utter exclama- 
tions, such as ' Oh ! ' ' Ah ! ' c Dear me ! ' Interjections are 
of very small importance. The grammar of our sentences 
would not be disturbed, nor the sense seriously affected, if 
they were suppressed. 

27. The Parts of Speech ttlustrated. — The following sentence of 
eight words contains an example of each of the eight Parts of Speech. 

'He worked diligently, but, alas, with poor results.' 

Let us briefly note the function of each word. 

He stands for the 'thing* about which the assertion is made. The 
name of this thing might be 'Jones, ' or ' the boy, ' — a noun. In place 
of the noun, we have here a Pronoun. 

Worked is the word by means of which the assertion is made : a 
Verb. 

Diligently limits the verb worked, describing the action more defi- 
nitely by stating how he worked : an Adverb. 

But is a Conjunction, joining the two sentences, (1) 'He worked 
diligently,' (2) 'He worked with poor results,' in the second of which 
the verb is supplied in thought, though not expressed. 

Alas is an Interjection, indicating the painful feelings, for which 
the hearer or reader must be prepared, when the 'poor results' are 
announced. 

With is a Preposition, showing us the relation which the noun 
results occupies with regard to the rest of the sentence. 

Poor is an Adjective, limiting the noun results. When he worked, 
there must have been results of some sort, —good, bad, or indifferent. 
The Adjective supplies the needed qualification. 

Results is a Noun, indicating the ' things ' which he got by his work. 

28. Relative Importance of the Parts of Speech. 
—The Parts of Speech, arranged in order according to their 
importance, may be grouped as follows : — 

First, — Nouns and Verbs, which are equally indis- 
pensable. 

Second, — Adjectives, Pronouns, and Prepositions, the 

W, G. B, 2 



i8 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

want of any one of which would seriously cripple our 
powers of expression. 

Third, — Conjunctions and Adverbs, substitutes for which 
might be found at no great inconvenience. 

Fourth, — Interjections, which we could spare very well. 

QUESTIONS. 

i. Make sentences to show that each of the following words may 
be used as a different Part of Speech in different connexions \— forge, 
contract^ tear, close, stone, bear, shade, shed, 

i. Name the Part of Speech to which each of the following words 
belongs: — arrow, beside, boy > grow, often, though, through, vain, vein, ah. 
What Part of Speech is not represented in the list? 

3. What is the Part of Speech of each of the italicised words in the 
following sentences? — 'Cobden headed the movement.' — ' He had a good 
head.' — 'He is head boy in the class.' — * Iron the clothes with a hot 
iron, 1 — 'I stayed on deck.* — 'I had a deck cabin. ' — 'It was gaily decked 
with flowers.' — ' Paper the walls with white paper.' — 'You must ship 
the cargo in a large ship.'' — * The judge will fine him five pounds.' — 
'I should judge that the fine will not be paid.' — 'The result will be 
anything but fine,' — 'He took three wickets in the second over,' — 'The 
ball went over my head, and in trying to catch it I fell over,' — 'I must 
second your efforts.' — 'He has promised to forward your letters: they 
will be sent forward' — 'He is a forward boy for his age : he plays on 
the right wing and is our best forward,' — 'Take the cart back to the 
back yard and back it into the shed at the back of the stable.' — ' Till the 
ground in spring.' — 'Stay //// evening.' — 'The thief waited till the 
man's back was turned and then he robbed the till.'- ■*-• Light the lamp.' 
— 'The lamp gives a poor light.' — 'Take some light refreshment.' 

4. In the following sentences, substitute Adverbs equivalent to the 
phrases in italics : — 'She was dressed in an elegant fashion.' — ' On one 
occasion I asked him in what manner he escaped. ' — ' I cannot give you 
an answer at the present moment,' — ' From what place have you come 
and to what place are you going?' 



CHAPTER V. 
Nouns. 
29. A Noun is the name of a thing. 

In this definition two points require careful attention : — 
(i) Avoid confusing the word and the thing. The material, paper, 
on which this book is printed, is not a noun ; it is a thing. The name, 
'paper/ by which we speak of the material, is a noun. 

(2) When we say that a noun is the name of a thing, we use the 
word 'thing* to denote whatever we can think about. Whether our 
objects of thought are men and women or lifeless matter, — whether they 
correspond with realities in nature or are merely imaginary, — every 
object that we can think about we call a 'thing,' and the name of such 
a thing is a noun. For our present purpose we regard a man, an angel, 
a ghost, a dragon, infinity, nothing, as things, just as a horse and a table 
are things. You ask perhaps, 'How can "nothing" be a thing? 5 We 
reply that it is a 'thing' in this sense, that it is what we can think 
about. WTien we say, 'Take two from two and nothing remains,' we 
express a meaning by the word 'nothing'; otherwise we should be 
talking nonsense. 'Nothing' is what we are thinking of, and the word, 
by which we express what we are thinking of, is a noun. 

Let us now consider the classes in which Nouns may be 
arranged. 

30. Common and Proper Nouns. — Compare the 
nouns river and George. In one respect they are alike: 
there are many objects to which we apply the name ' river/ 
and many objects to which we apply the name ■ George/ 
But there is this important difference between the two names : 
' river ' has a meaning, ' George ' has none. If we were told 
that in a certain county there was a thing called a ' river, 

2— a 



2o ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

we should have an idea of the thing that was meant, — water 
flowing between banks from a source to an outfall. But if 
we were told that in the same county there was a thing 
called * George/ this statement would give us no distinct 
information, unless we had some reason beforehand for 
supposing that a particular George was meant. For ' George' 
might indicate a man or a boy, a horse or a dog, a town or 
a fort. ' George ' is merely a mark, which we put at our 
pleasure on an object, in order to distinguish it from other 
objects. Any other mark, — ' John ' or * Tom/ — would serve 
just as well, provided that people were told what the mark 
denoted. And, in fact, marks of this kind are often changed. 
Thus, a man may alter his name from * Jones ' to 'Stanley.' 
Then, if he advertises the alteration, so that his friends 
know that his mark is now ' Stanley ' instead of * Jones/ no 
confusion is caused. Suppose that a servant, whose name 
is * Ann/ goes to a house in which there is already a servant 
called 'Ann'; mistress and maid probably agree to change 
the old mark i Ann ' for a new mark, such as ' Sarah ' or 
'Jane.' 

If, on the other hand, we changed a name, like 'river/ 
which has a meaning, for another name, like ' chair/ which 
has a different meaning, and called a river a 'chair/ we 
should talk nonsense. Why? Because the word 'chair' 
suggests to our minds the idea of a piece of furniture on 
which we sit, and if we told a person that the Thames 
was a ' chair/ we should tell him that a stream of water was 
a piece of furniture; which is absurd. All objects called 
' rivers ' have certain features in common, and because they 
have these features, we apply to them the name. To any 
object from which these features are absent, the name 
' river ' is unsuitable. Thus, if a portion of water is enclosed 
by banks on all sides, we call it a 'pond,' or a ' lake,' or a 
'reservoir/ not a 'river.' But the different objects called 
* George ' have not necessarily any feature in common, and 
there are various names of the same sort which would suit 
them equally well. Now names such as 'river' and 'chair' 



NOUNS. 2,1 

are called Common Nouns, while names such as ' George ' 
and ' Ann ' are called Proper Nouns. 

A Common Noun is one which can be applied to 
several things in the same sense. 

A Proper Noun is a name given to an individual 
as a mere distinguishing mark. 

31. Proper Nouns becoming Common. — Proper Nouns are used as 
Common Nouns when they indicate a class of things resembling the 
individuals denoted by the Proper name. Thus, we may describe a 
successful general as *a second Wellington,' or *a nineteenth-century 
Marlborough,' or we may say that 'England is proud of her Marl- 
boroughs and Wellingtons,' meaning 'soldiers like Marlborough and 
Wellington.' But in the sentence, 'The Marlboroughs live at Blenheim 
and the Wellingtons at Strathfieldsaye,' the nouns are strictly Proper, 
for they signify people called Marlborough and Wellington, not people 
like Marlborough and Wellington. 

32. Collective Nouns. — When a number of things 
of the same sort are collected together, we sometimes give a 
name to the group. Thus we call eleven cricketers a 'team '; 
we call a multitude of persons a i crowd/ or, if they are dis- 
orderly persons, a * mob ' ; we speak of the sailors belonging 
to a ship as the I crew.' The words cricketers, persons, 
sailors, are plural nouns ; the words team, crowd, mob, crew, 
are Collective Nouns, or Nouns of Multitude. 

As individuals of the same kind may be gathered together 
in more than one group, Collective nouns can be used in 
the plural number. We may speak of ' cricket teams? i rival 
mobs, 1 t well- trained crews 1 

A Collective Noun is defined as one which 
denotes a number of things regarded as forming 
a whole. 

33. Abstract and Concrete Nouns. — When we 
are handling a billiard-ball, we observe that it has certain 
properties, qualities, or attributes. It is solid, white, smooth, 
round, made of ivory. To these qualities or attributes we 
can give names and speak of the solidity, whiteness, smoothness, 
roundness, of the ball. Apart from the ball, or some other 



22 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

object, these qualities have no existence. We cannot actually 
separate the whiteness or the roundness of the ball and say, 
1 There is the ball, and here I have got its whiteness, or its 
roundness.' But though the qualities have no separate and 
independent existence, we can consider them apart from the 
ball. We can abstract, or draw off, our thoughts from the 
other qualities of the ball, and can fix our attention on its 
whiteness or roundness. The names of the qualities, which 
we separate from the rest in this way, are called Abstract 
Nouns : the names of the things, which possess the qualities, 
are called Concrete Nouns. 

We may define them thus : — 

A Concrete Noun is the name of a thing regarded 
as possessing attributes. 

An Abstract Noun is the name of an attribute 
or quality of a thing. 

34. Some qualities are not supplied with Abstract Nouns. — To 
many attributes or qualities no abstract names are assigned. Thus, 
though the ball is made of ivory, we do not speak of its ivoriness. The 
reason why such a word is absent is this : the quality is one of which we 
seldom have occasion to speak. 

35. Nouns often wrongly supposed to be Abstract. — Guard 
against supposing that the name of a thing is an Abstract noun when- 
ever the thing is one which cannot be touched. A noun is always Con- 
crete, if it is the name of anything which has qualities, or attributes. 
You might be disposed to fancy that ghost and night are abstract nouns, 
because they are the names of unsubstantial, shadowy things. But this 
is quite a mistake. Ghost is a common, concrete noun, — common, 
because it is applicable to several objects in the same sense, — concrete, 
because a ghost possesses attributes, e.g. a certain shape, size, colour, 
etc. Night is not an abstract noun : night has qualities of its own, e.g. 
solemnity, silence, darkness. Solemnity, silence, darkness, are therefore 
abstract nouns, but night is a concrete noun. 

36. Some Nouns at different times Abstract and Concrete. — Many 
nouns are Abstract in one of their uses and Concrete in another. Virtue 
is Abstract in the sentence, * He is a man of virtue * ; in the sentence, 
'His virtues are well known,' it is Concrete. Distance is Abstract, 
when we say, 'Distance lends enchantment to the view'; Concrete > 
when we say, 'They ran different distances. ,' An Abstract noun, so 



NOUNS. 23 

long as it remains Abstract, cannot be used in the plural; for an 
Abstract noun, such as whiteness, is the name of a quality which is 
always one and the same, and therefore singular, however many the 
objects may be in which it is found. Honesty and goodness are always 
Abstract nouns. There are no circumstances in which we could say 
honesties or goodnesses. 

If, in any example, a noun occurs in the plural number, you may 
feel quite sure that, at any rate in that example, it is not an Abstract 
noun. But you must not conclude, on the other hand, that because a 
noun cannot be used in the plural number it must therefore be an 
Abstract noun ; for it may possibly be a Concrete noun used only in the 
singular, such, for instance, as noon, dawn, mud, hail, rheumatism. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. What Collective Nouns denote groups composed of the follow- 
ing individuals? — schoolboys, masters in a school, flowers, geese, par- 
tridges, people at church, ships, books. 

1. Substitute equivalent Common Nouns for the words in italics : — 
* a village Hampden,* 'the Rupert of debate/ 'some mute inglorious 
Milton? 'quite a Goliath, 'a modern Alexander? ' Virgils will flourish 
where Maecenases abound.' 

3. Form Abstract Nouns from the following — 

(a) Adjectives : — wild, slow, Just, modest, vigilant, free, deficient ; 

(b) Verbs 1 — grow, know, hate, marry ; 

(c) Nouns: — hero, friend, beggar, knave. 

4. Refer each of the following Nouns to its class, according as it 
is Common, Proper, Collective, Abstract, or Concrete: — impertinence, 

jury, governor, day, squadron, youth, knoauledge, Wellington, talent, 
education, Robert, senate, Boston, truth, mob, England. 

5. How would you describe the Noun Grace as it occurs in the 
following sentences? — 'The Romans recognised three Graces? — 'Three 
Graces have played for Gloucestershire.' — 'The senate rejected three 

graces? — 'We shall not soon see a second Grace? — 'He danced with 
Grace? — 'He danced with extraordinary grace? — 'The chaplain said 

grace? 

6. State whether the Nouns in the following sentences are used as 
Abstract or as Concrete : — ' Colour adds a charm to the scene.' — 'This 
silk is of a pretty colotir? — 'Friendship is love without its wings.' — 
' Let us swear an eternal friendship. ' — ' Friendships often terminate in 
disgust.' — ' Art is long, life is short.' — ' Their lives are passed in study- 
ing the Fine Arts? — 'The length of the course was four miles.' — 'Cam- 
bridge won by a length? — 'Reason requires that you should have reasons 
for your beliefs? — ' Society will pardon much to genius? — ' Geniuses are 
seldom fond of society? — 'Beauty soon fades.' — 'Baby is a little beauty? 



CHAPTER VI. 
Inflexion of Nouns. — I. Gender. 

37. Nouns are inflected to indicate differences 
of Gender, Number, and Case. 

Take, for example, the word author. If the writer, of 
whom we are speaking, is a woman, we change author to 
author-ess. The ending -ess is an inflexion marking Gender. 

Again, if we are referring to more than one author or 
authoress, we say authors or authoress-es. The endings -s 
and -es are inflexions marking Number. 

Again, compare the two statements, 'The author 
destroyed the manuscript,' and ' The author's dog destroyed 
the manuscript. ' According to the former statement, the 
author stood in a certain relation to the destructive action : 
he was himself the doer of the act. According to the latter 
statement, the author stood in a certain relation to the dog : 
he was the possessor of the animal. This difference of 
relation is denoted by the change of author to author-' s. 
The ending -s is an inflexion marking Case. 

38. Loss of Inflexions in English. — The sum-total of the inflexions, 
which the words in any language undergo, constitutes its Accidence. 
Latin and Greek are languages in which there are many of these 
inflexions, and the task of learning Latin or Greek Accidence is there- 
fore by no means an easy one. On the other hand, the inflexions which 
still remain in English nouns, pronouns, and verbs, are so few, that they 
might all be printed on a single page. Consequently, the distinctions 
of Gender and Case, which were marked by inflexions in English as it 
was spoken centuries ago, are often expressed by other means in modem 
English. 



INFLEXION OF NOUNS.— L GENDER. 25 

39. Gender a grammatical distinction. — Gender 
is a grammatical distinction, which we make in words ; and 
in English this grammatical distinction usually corresponds 
with the natural difference of sex. Not always indeed, for 
we often disregard the sex, when we refer to a child, or to 
one of the lower animals, and use the neuter pronoun //, 
instead of using he or she. But making allowance for these 
exceptions, we may say that an English noun is generally of 
the masculine or of the feminine gender, according as 
the object, which it denotes, is of the male or of the female 
sex. Things which are of neither sex, — such objects as 
chairs or rivers, to which the distinction of sex is in- 
applicable, — are denoted by nouns of neuter gender. 
'Neuter' gender means ' neither ; gender, — that is, neither 
masculine nor feminine gender. Some nouns, such as 
parent^ sovereign, attendant, painter, can be used to denote 
persons of either sex, and are therefore said to be of 
common gender. 

40. Three ways of marking Gender. — To denote 
a difference of sex, we make a distinction in language in the 
following ways : — 

1. By Inflexion. 

2. By Composition. 

3. By the Use of an entirely Different Word. 

(1) Gender marked by Inflexion.— The suffixes 
{i.e. the terminations, or endings,) of words, indicating 
gender may be classified thus : — 

-ster, in spinster 
in vixen 

-ess, Norman French, countess 

-trix, Latin, testatrix 

-ine, Greek, heroine) German, land- 
gravine 

-a, Italian or Spanish, signora, in- 
fanta 



Of English origin \ 
Of Foreign origin 



26 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

English endings. — It is only in the words spinster and vix-en that 
the old English endings -ster and -en retain their force as feminine 
inflexions. Spinster properly signifies *a female spinner': it now means 
'an unmarried woman.' We have the same suffix in songstress and 
seamstress, but the French ending -ess has been added to songster and 
seamster, which were already feminine forms, thus making these words 
feminines twice over, — double-feminines, as they are called. 

The vix of vix-en is the same word as/ox, with the vowel changed 
and v in place of/. (In the word wine-fat, Mark xii. i, an /occurs 
where we now use a v.) 

Foreign endings. — The suffix -ess is the only inflexion which we use 
at the present day in forming a new feminine noun; e.g. authoress, 
doctress. 

In baron , giant, lion, mayor, patron, peer, and several others, the 
feminine is formed by adding -ess without any further change in the 
word. On the other hand, a vowel or a syllable is frequently dropped 
from a word to which this termination -ess is attached; as, e.g., in 
actress, negress, tigress, empress, governess, murderess, sorceress. 

(2) Gender marked by Composition. — When we 
make a new word by joining together two or more existing 
words, we call the resulting word a Compound. Thus 
he-goat, cock-sparrow, maid-servant, cow-calf, are Compounds : 
each part of the words has a meaning by itself. Compare 
with these the word authoress, formed from author hy adding 
-ess. Now -ess has a force only when added to another 
word; by itself it is without any meaning; it is a mere 
suffix, not a word. 

(3) Gender marked by the Use of Different 
Words. — In the word author-ess, we have an example of 
true grammatical Gender. The change in the meaning of 
the word has been brought about by the change in its form. 
But pairs of unconnected nouns, such as boy and girl, are 
not instances of true grammatical Gender: they are sub- 
stitutes for it. The word girl is not an inflected form of 
the word boy : it is an entirely different word. 



INFLEXION OF NOUNS.— I GENDER. 



27 



Of such pairs of different words, note the following : — 

Fern. 



Masc. Fern. 
Bachelor Spinster 
Boar Sow 

Doe 



Masc. 
Gaffer 
Gander 
Hart 
King 
Lord 
Mallard 
Man 
Monk 
Nephew 



Fern. 
Gammer 
Goose 
Roe 
Queen 
Lady 

Wild-duck 
Woman 
Nun 
Niece 



Masc. 
Ram or 
Wether 
Sir 
Sire 
Sloven 
Stag . 

Tailor 

Wizard 



Ewe 

Madam 

Dam 

Slut 

Hind 
(Tailoress or 
(Seamstress 

Witch 



Boar 
Buck 

BU Steer ^| Heifer 
Colt Filly 

Drake Duck 

Drone Queen-bee 

Earl Countess 

You may observe that in nearly all cases the feminine is formed 
from the masculine. In the following words, however, this order is 
reversed, and the masculine is formed from the feminine : — 

Bridegroom was originally bryd-guma, 'bride's -man': guma meant 
'man' in Old English. 

Gander comes from the same root as goose : the German form of the 
word for 'goose' is guns. 

Widower is formed from widow. 



QUESTIONS. 

1. Mention some nouns in which the termination -ster occurs with- 
out a feminine force. 

Are there any feminine nouns without corresponding masculines? 
[A few : e.g. brunette, dowager, milliner, shrew, siren, virago.] 

2. Mention half-a-dozen nouns of Common Gender. 

Quote an example of the use of each of the following Proper Nouns 
in compounds, to indicate the sex of an animal : — Jack, Jenny, Tom, 
Billy, Nanny. 

3. Give the words correlative in Gender to lad, bachelor, vixen, hero, 
niece, beau, sultana, wizard, nun, executor, marquis, traitor, ram, pea- 
cock, abbot. 

4. When we Personify the following objects, to which of them is 
the pronoun She applicable? — Sun, Moon, Night ', Liberty r , Ocean, Fear t 
Wind, Mercy, The Thames, Mont Blanc. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Inflexion of Nouns. — II. Number. 

41. Number is an inflexion which shows 
whether we are speaking of one thing or of more 
than one. 

When we speak of one thing, the form of the noun 
is Singular ; when of more than one thing, the form of the 
noun is Plural. 

42. Formation of Plurals. — The ways of forming 
Plurals in English Nouns are shown in the following classi- 
fied scheme : — 

Table of Plural Forms. 

I. Add -s to the singular. 

II. Add -es to the singular of— 

Ii. Nouns ending in a sibilant, viz., s, z> sh, x, ch* 

i. Some nouns ending in/ sound; change/ into v. 

3. Nouns ending in^* preceded by a consonant; change^ into *. 

4. Some nouns ending in o. 

III. Old English forms: 

( 1. Add -en ; ox-en. 

1 1. Add -er ; child-(e)r-en. 

( 3. Change the vowel; men, geese* 

IV. Foreign forms : 

!i. Ancient; seraphim, phenomena^ appendices* 
%, Modern; banditti, mesdames. 



INFLEXION OF NOUNS.— II. NUMBER. 29 
43. Remarks on the Table of Plural Forms. 

I. The ordinary mode of forming a plural in modern English is to 
add -s in writing : thus a new word like telephone or cablegram takes s. 
If however a word is borrowed directly from a foreign language, it may 
retain the form of the plural which it had in that foreign language. 
Such a word is then said to be 'imperfectly naturalized'; it has not yet 
become an English subject. 

Observe however that though we add s in writing, we often add z in 
pronunciation. Thus we write slabs, pods, hogs, but we pronounce 
these words slabz, podz, hogz. 

II. This inflexion in s is a survival of the older form of the plural 
in -es. 

1. The inflexion es as a. separate syllable is necessarily retained to 
make the plurals of nouns ending in a sibilant sound. For if we add s 
to words with s, z, sh, x, or ch, for their last letter, such as gas, topaz, 
bush, box, church, the s thus added cannot be pronounced. The ch of 
which we speak here is the ch of arch, beech ; the hard ch of monarch 
takes s. 

2. As a general rule we may say that, if the noun is of English 
origin, and they" is preceded by /, or by a long vowel, f is changed into 
v, and es is added. 

The following nouns illustrate the rule: leaf, loaf, calf, wife, wolf, 
self, for these words are of English origin and the vowel is long, or, if 
short, the/ is preceded by /. On the other hand, the long vowel-sound 
00 in roof hoof, is not followed by -ves: these words take s. Staff, 
though of English origin and with long vowel, has for its plural both 
staves and staffs. Strife, safe, brief, chief, and proof lake s conformably 
with the rule, as they are not of English origin, but come from the 
French. Wharf, dwarf, scarf, are found with plurals in both forms, fs 
and ves, 

3. There is hardly anything in the nature of an exception to the 
rule respecting nouns ending in y. A word like soliloquy, which makes 
its plural in Us, looks as if it were an exception, but it really follows the 
rule, for the combination qu has the force of kw, which is a consonantal 
sound. The nown fly, however, when it means 'a carriage,' is written 
flys, and is thus distinguished from flies, 'insects.' Some words in ey 
are occasionally found with their plural in ies, eg, monies, but it is 
better to spell them according to the rule. 

4. The nouns in which take es are usually of earlier introduction 
than those which take s* Cargo, hero, potato, negro, take es: canto, 
solo, alto, piano, folio, take s. 

By observation and practice you will learn how to form the plurals 
of nouns in /and correctly. Rules are of no great value for the 
purpose. 



30 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

III. Old English forms, other than es and s, which survive in 
modern English are few. 

i. Oxen is the only modern English word which presents us with 
the form en simply. Chicken is not a plural word, though it is used as 
such in country districts. Kine is a double plural : cow in Old English 
modified its vowel to form the plural and became cy (as mouse becomes 
mice), and the plural inflexion en was also added. 

2. Child-r-en is a double plural, the r being one sign of the plural 
and the en another. No other word preserves for us the inflexion er 
with a plural force. Brethren is a double plural, brother having already 
modified its vowel to mark the plural, before en was added. But the 
r in brethren, unlike the r in children, belongs to the original word, 
and is not an inflexion. 

3. There are only six nouns, in addition to the double forms men- 
tioned above, which change their vowel to mark the plural : man, foot, 
tooth, goose, mouse, louse. 

IV. Many of the nouns from dead languages can now be used with 
English plural forms : we can say formulas, memorandums, funguses, 
as well as formula, memoranda, fungi. Cherubim and seraphim are 
Hebrew plurals, but in our ordinary speech we say cherubs and seraphs. 
The forms cherubims, seraphims, are double- plurals. 

44. Anomalies in the Number of Nouns. — The 

following paragraphs contain illustrations of various kinds 
of anomaly in the number of nouns. Anomaly means 
* unevenness/ or ' irregularity.' 

(1) Nouns used in the Plural without change of 
form. 

The following are examples : deer, sheep, grouse, the names of several 
sorts of fish, — salmon, trout, cod; also yoke (' 'five yoke of oxen'), brace, 
hundredweight, 

(2) Nouns really Singular treated as Plural. 

In alms, eaves, riches, the s is a part of the original word and not a 
plural inflexion. But it was mistaken for a sign of the plural, and these 
words are consequently treated as plurals. The French richesse, from 
which riches is derived, explains the presence of the s. 

(3) Nouns Plural in form used as if Singular. 

News always takes a singular verb and a singular demonstrative 
adjective: 'This news is not true/ not * These news are not true/ 
Small-pox is a plural in disguise, for pox is really pocks : we have the 
singular in chicken-pock. Yet we never use a plural verb with small* 
pox. 



INFLEXION OF NOUNS.— II NUMBER. 31 

Tidings, means, amends, pains, odds, wages, are treated sometimes as 
singular, sometimes as plural. Mathematics, physics, statics, and several 
similar words are plural forms taken from Greek adjectives. But, with 
the exception of the word politics, these nouns are now used as singular 
words. 

(4) Nouns changing their meaning in the Plural. 

Domino means 'a mask,' dominoes * a game': vapour means * steam,' 
vapours 'ill-humour': compass 'a mariner's compass,' compasses 'instru- 
ments for measuring': vesper 'evening,' vespers 'evening service': good 
'means 'anything good.,* goods means 'chattels.' 

(5) Nouns having two forms of the Plural with dif- 
ferent meanings. 

Pennies means separate coins, pence is collective : ' Can you give me 
six pennies for this sixpence?' Brother has the collective plural 
brethren, meaning members of the same community. Die, 'a. stamp,' 
makes a plural dies, 'stamps,' and a collective dice, 'cubes' used in 
gambling. Cloth makes cloths, signifying different kinds or different 
pieces of cloth, and also clothes, the collection of one's garments. Fish 
has for its pluxalfishes, but for its collective fish : ' He brought home a 
large basket of fish.' The word pea has lost the s in the singular by 
mistake : in the French pots it is still visible. But in its reduced form it 
has a plural pea s, 'This pod contains six peas,' and a collective pease, as 
in 'pease-pudding.' Index and genius have different plural forms, 
neither of which is however collective. Indexes means 'tables of 
contents'; geniuses, 'persons of genius.' But indices means certain 
'algebraical signs,' and. genii, 'Eastern spirits.' 

(6) Some nouns have no Plural. 

This is because their meaning excludes the idea of plurality. We 
saw that abstract nouns, while they remain abstract, cannot be used in 
the plural. Many of these nouns do occur in the plural, but they have 
then ceased to be abstract and have become concrete general names. 
Hope, hardship, joy, colour, are abstract nouns which we use as con- 
cretes when we speak of hopes, hardships, joys, colours. On the other 
hand, manhood, indolence, goodness, wisdom, are always abstract and 
singular. 

Again, though the names of many substances or materials are used 
in the plural number, signifying different kinds or different portions of 
the material, there are some names of this description which custom 
forbids us to use in this way. Granite, gold, potash, bread, flax, are 
never plurah The names of some diseases also are always singular, e,g. 
gout, consumption^ rheumatism. 



32 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

(7) Some nouns have no Singular. 

These nouns denote things composed of separate parts, and the com- 
plex character of the object makes the plural form appropriate. E.g. 
scissors, tweezers, trousers, entrails. 

QUESTIONS. 

i» Write in the Plural number the following nouns: — 

(a) ox, fox, tooth, hero, folio, cargo, fi/e, knife, scarf, proof, hoof, 
country, monkey, story, storey, beauty, wharf, chief, kiss, eye, colloquy, 
lily, flag-staff, canto, fly, summons, Miss Jones, Mr Smith: 

(b) axis, formula, appendix, bandit, beau, cherub, radius, genus, 
tableau vivant, crocus, animalculum, portmanteau, medium, plateau, 
madam : 

(c) aide-de-camp, Lord Mayor, Knight Templar, maid-of honour, 
major-general, Frenchman, Norman, talisman, cast-away, lady-help, 
heir apparent, man-of-war, man-servant, brother-in-law. 

2. Put in the Singular number tumuli, series, effluvia, automata, 
vertices, phenomena, errata, seraphim, bases, criteria. 

3. Make sentences in which the following nouns are used with 
different meanings in the Singular and the Plural: — people, wood, 
manner, force, spectacle, good, iron, water, compass. 

4. Mention some nouns ending in f which do not form their 
Plurals in ~ves. 

5. In which of the following sentences would you alter the number 
of the verb to the Plural ? — * The wages of sin is death. ' — ' Small-pox 
has disappeared, and pains is being taken to stamp out measles, which 
continues to spread, as the means of checking its progress was employed 
too late.' — 'No tidings of his arrival has reached us.' — 'The eaves 
projects over the road.' — 'The gallows still stands on the heath, where 
the barracks is being built.' — 'What is the odds?' — 'Mathematics 
affords good mental exercise.' 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Inflexion of Nouns. — III. Case. 

45. Things are related in various ways to 
other things and to their actions. — Compare the 
following sentences : — 

'The town admitted the enemy/ 
'The enemy captured the town.' 
Each sentence makes mention of the* same two things, a 
town and an enemy. But although the two things are the 
same, the relation in which they are described as standing 
to each other is different. According to the first sentence, 
the town did something to the enemy. According to the 
second sentence, the enemy did something to the town. 

The two things, town and enemy, might be related to 
each other in many other ways. The enemy might retire 
from the town, — or return to the town, — or march through 
the town, — or remain in the town, — or dig a passage under 
the town, — or gallop up and down the town. 

46. How these relations are expressed in 
language. — When we record in language these different 
performances of the enemy, we use nouns to name the 
things, and verbs to state what was done. And we may 
say that, just as the things, enemy and town, occupied 
various relations to each other and to the acts of marching, 
or digging, or galloping, so, in our sentences, the nouns 
enemy and town are related in various ways to each other 
and to the verbs by means of which the acts are asserted. 

w. g. b. 3 



34 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

Let us notice how these different relations are expressed. 
In our first two examples, the relations in which town and 
enemy stood to each other were determined by the position 
of the words in the sentence. When the town did some- 
thing to the enemy, we put the word town before the verb, 
and the word enemy after the verb, and said, 'The town 
admitted the enemy. 7 When the enemy did something to 
the town, we reversed the places of the nouns and said, 
' The enemy captured the town.' 

Now look at the remaining sentences, and you will see 
that the different relations are indicated by prepositions. 
Every change of the preposition marks a change in the 
relation of the town to the enemy. 

47. Relations expressed by Case-endings. — 
Suppose however that our word town (and other nouns too) 
had a large supply of inflexions, by which all these relations 
could be expressed. Suppose, for example, that when some- 
thing was done to the town, we said 'town-um instead of 
town. The consequence would be this : — we should no 
longer be obliged to put town after the verb, as we are 
obliged to put it now, when we say, ' The enemy captured 
the town.' We could vary the order and say, 'Town-um 
the enemy captured/ or 'The enemy town-um captured/ 
and people would understand our meaning, because they 
would know that the noun ending in -um stood for the 
thing to which the action was done. 

Suppose further that inflexions were employed also to 
mark those other relations, which we expressed by means of 
prepositions, — so that, for instance, town-o signified 'from 
the town/ and town-i signified 'in the town/ — we should 
then be showing these relations of our nouns by Case- 
endings, instead of showing them, as we do now, by the use 
of prepositions. To say town-uni, town-i > and town-o, in 
English, is to talk gibberish, but Corinth-um, Corinth-i, and 
Corinth-o, were not gibberish in Latin. A Roman said Corinth- 
ian when he meant ' to Corinth ' ; Corinth-i, when he meant 



INFLEXION OF NOUNS,— III CASE. 35 

'at Corinth'; and Cori?ith-o, when he meant 'from Corinth.' 
Latin was well off" for case-endings; but even in Latin it 
was often necessary to use prepositions, because the re- 
lations, in which things stand to other things, are far more 
numerous than the case-endings of that language could 
express. A Roman had to fail back on prepositions, when 
he wanted to say 'through Corinth/ 'round Corinth/ 'under 
Corinth/ 'up and down Corinth. ' 

Now English has a very poor supply of Case-endings, 
and consequently, — 

(1) The position of nouns in English sentences admits 
of very little variety. 

(2) Prepositions are used instead of Cases. 
We may define Case as follows : — 

Case is the form of a noun, or pronoun, which 
shows its relation to other words in the sentence. 

The sum-total of the inflexions marking number and 
case of a noun or pronoun is called its Declension. 

48. Cases in English. — How many cases have we 
in English nouns and pronouns ? In answer to this question, 
let us write out the declension of town and of he. 



Sing. 


Plur. 


Sing. 


Plur. 


Nom. town 


towns 


he 


they 


Poss. town's 


towns' 


his 


their 


Obj. town 


towns 


him 


them 



It is clear that the pronoun he is better off than the 
noun in its supply of case-inflexions. He, his, him, are 
three genuine cases. But it is otherwise with the noun. 
Town, nominative, is indistinguishable in form from town, 
objective. The form of the word town does not show its 
relation to the rest of the sentence : the position of the 
word, or its context, shows its relation. The distinction 
between subject and object is one of such importance, 
however, that we are obliged to recognise it by speaking of 
a Nominative and an Objective case in nouns as well as 
in pronouns. If him is correctly described as a pronoun in 

3 _ a 



36 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

the objective case, when we say, 'Brutus killed him,' it 
would be inconvenient if we refused to call Caesar a noun 
in the objective case, when we say, ' Brutus killed Caesar/ 
for him and Caesar stand in precisely the same relation to 
the verb by which the act of killing is asserted. 

But combinations of a noun and a preposition are not 
to be called Cases. If of a town, to a town, from a town, 
were cases, we should have as many cases as there are 
prepositions. 

49. Functions of the Cases. 

(i) The Nominative case is the form of a noun when it stands as 
subject of a verb. 

4 The town admitted the enemy/ ' The town was taken.' In each of 
these sentences the subject is town, though in the first sentence town 
represents the doer of the action, while in the second it stands for the 
thing to which the action is done. 

When the noun represents a thing spoken to, we may call its case the 
Vocative, or the Nominative of Address. ' Waiter P 'Come here, 
JohnP *0 death! O grave!' are examples. 

(2) The Objective case is the form of a noun when it stands as 
object of a verb, or foUows a preposition. 'The enemy took the 
town, 1 'The enemy are in the town. 1 Town is said to be in the objective 
case, in the former sentence because it represents the object which the 
enemy took, in the latter because it comes after the preposition in. 

Some verbs take two objects: 'Give me the book,' 'He told us a 
story 1 'She taught him music ,' 'Get them a cab.' In these sentences, 
me=to me, us = to us, him = to him, them— for them. These words me, 
us, him, them, are called Indirect Objects; book, story, music, cab, are 
called Direct Objects. 

(3) The Possessive case is the form of a noun when it stands 
for a thing to which something else belongs or with which it is 
connected. 

The king's crown, the king's execution. The noun king assumes the 
form king's because it stands for a thing (e.g. Charles I. or Louis XVI.) 
to which a crown belongs, or with which an execution is connected. 

This relation may be expressed by the inflexion 's or by the preposi- 
tion of. We may say the king's crown, the king's execution, or the crown 
of the king, the execution of the king. The form king's is a possessive 
case : the expression of the king is no case at all, any more than to, from, 
by, with, in, round the king are cases. 

The apostrophe before the s is no part of the inflexion or case : it is 



INFLEXION OF NOUNS.— Ill CASE. 37 

merely a device of spelling to show that a letter, e, has been thrown out, 
or turned away. (Apostrophe means 'a turning away.') 

50. Formation of the Possessive case. — To form the possessive 
case singular, add 's. 

To form the possessive case plural, add \r, if the plural does not 
already end in s : if it already ends in s, add the apostrophe only. 

50. sing, to-tvn, town's-, plur. towns, towns'. Thus, in sound town's, 
towns, towns' are indistinguishable. But if we add the \r to a singular 
noun which in the singular ends in an s sound, or sibilant, we pronounce 
the 's as a separate syllable: thus actress's is pronounced just like 
actresses or actresses'. 

The possessive singular of a noun ending in a sibilant is frequently 
formed by adding the apostrophe without the -s, in order to avoid the 
recurrence of the s sound : but no hard and fast rule can be laid down. 
We say 'Jesus' brothers,' 'Sophocles' tragedies,' 'for goodness' sake,' 
'for conscience' sake.' But we more commonly sound the s and write 
'St James's Square,' 'Mr Jones's,' ; St Thomas's Hospital.' 

It is quite a mistake to suppose that the 's of the possessive is a 
corruption of his, so that John's book has grown out of John his book. 
In Old English there is no trace of such a use of his. Besides, if this 
theory were accepted, how could we explain the origin of the s in his? 
Where did we get the first his from? 

51. Examples of the Declension of Nouns. 

Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur. 

Nom. Obj. ox oxen mouse mice 

Possess. ox's oxen's mouse's mice's 

Sing. Plur. 

Nom. Obj. conscience consciences 

Possess. conscience's, consciences' 

or conscience' 

Sing. Plur. 

Nom. Obj. son-in-law sons-in-law 

Possess. son-in-law's sons-in-law's 

Sing. Sing. Sing. 

Nom. Obj. James Henry VIII. The last of the barons 

Possess. James', Henry VIII. 's The last of the barons' 

or James's 

52. Restricted Use of the Inflected Possessive. — A few trials will 
show that although the preposition of can always be employed, there 
are narrow limits to the use of the inflected form of the possessive in 's. 
We can say either 'the boy's cap,' or 'the cap of the boy,' 'the horse's 



38 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

bridle,' or 'the bridle of the horse/ 'nature's forces,' or 'the forces of 
nature.' But we cannot say, 'the ink's colour,' 'grammar's laws,' 'the 
house's roof,' 'the station's platform.' 

We may say that the inflected form in 's is generally reserved for 
the names of living things and of personified objects, though our 
usage does not entirely conform to this principle: we use the form in 
's in such phrases as 'a year's absence,' 'a month's delay,' though 
there is no personification to justify these idioms. 

53. How to tell the cases. — To find the — 

(i) Nominative, put who? or what? before the verb. 
' The enemy took the town/ ' Who took the town ? ' ' The 
enemy.' 'The town was taken by the enemy.' 'What was 
taken ? ' ' The town.' 

(2) Objective : — 

(a) Direct Object, put whom? ox what? before the 
verb and its subject. 'The enemy took the town.' 'What 
did the enemy take ? ' ' The town.' 

(p) Indirect Object, put to ox for whom or what? 
' Give me the book.' ' What do you give ? ' ' The book : ' 
this is the Direct Object. ' To whom do you give it ? ' 'To 
me.' ' Me' is the Indirect Object. 

(3) Possessive, look for the sign of inflexion V. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. What are the Case and Number of each of the following words? 
son's, fathers', men's, him, mice, mouse's, mice's. 

2. Write down the Possessive case, singular and plural, where ad- 
missible, of man, sheep, people, tree, Moses, gladness, cow, dwarf, die, 
Lord Chancellor, Secretary of the Home Department. 

3. Write the Possessive case in the plural of the feminine form cor- 
responding to hero, lad, songster, fox, testator, man-servant, prince, 

father-in-law, he-ass. 

4. Which of the following nouns can be used in sentences with the 
Possessive in ~s, as well as with its substitute of? — house, tree, oxygen, 
mantel-piece, year, jfune, servant, science, scarlatina, brandy. 

5. Name the case of each noun in the following sentences: — 'Cain 
killed Abel.' — 'Abel was killed by Cain.' — 'Tom, the piper's son, stole 
a pig.' — 'Tom the piper's son stole a pig.' — 'John I call me a friend.' — 
'Johnl call me a hansom.' — 'His neighbours called him The People's 
Friend.' 



CHAPTER DC 
Adjectives. 

54. An Adjective is a word which is used 
with a noun to limit its application. 

The name sheep is applicable to all sheep. If we join 
the Adjective black to the noun sheep », the name black sheep 
is applicable only to those sheep which possess the quality 
of blackness. The application of the name sheep has been 
limited to a smaller number of things. In like manner, if 
we say some sheep, twenty sheep, or these sheep, those sheep, 
we narrow, or restrict, or limit, in every instance the appli- 
cation of the noun. 

Adjectives and verbs resemble each other in this respect, that they 
express attributes or qualities of things, but there is a difference in their 
way of doing it. When we say 'the black sheep' we assume, or imply, 
or take for granted the connexion of the attribute blackness with the 
thing a sheep. When we say, 'The sheep is black,' we explicitly state 
this connexion. The word black in the former case is said to be used 
attributively, in the latter case predicativcly , since it forms, together 
with the verb is, the predicate of the sentence. 

Some adjectives can be used only predicatively. We can say, 'The 
man is afraid,' or 'awake,' but not 'the afraid man,' or ' the awake man. 

55. Classification of Adjectives. — Adjectives may 
be arranged in the following groups, or classes, according to 
the kind of limitation which they effect : — 

i. Adjectives of Quality : thick ', wise, sad, tall, magni- 
ficeni, modern, holy, native, se?iior. 



4 o ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

2. Adjectives of Quantity : 

(i) Definite; the Cardinal Numerals, one, two, fifty, 
no, none, both. 

(ii) Indefinite ; many, any, some, all, few, half 
several, most. 

3. Demonstrative Adjectives : 

(i) A and the, commonly called Articles. 

(ii) Pronominal Adjectives of various kinds : this, 
what, any, his. These will be dealt with in Chapter x. 

(iii) The Ordinal Numerals, first, twentieth. 

Qualitative Adjectives answer the question, * What sort?' 
Quantitative Definite Adjectives answer the question, * How many?' 
Quantitative Indefinite Adjectives answer the question, 'How many?'' 

or ' How much?* 
Demonstrative Adjectives answer the question, ' Which ?' 

56. The so-called Articles. — The words the and 
an or a are Demonstrative Adjectives. In parsing, we may 
describe the as a Demonstrative Adjective commonly called 
the Definite Article, and an or a as a Demonstrative Adjec- 
tive commonly called the Indefinite Article. 

1. What are the chief uses of the? 

(a) to point out a thing: 'Give me the book, — the red one.* 

(b) to specify objects which are well known to us : 'the river.' 

(c) to indicate things of which only a single specimen exists : 'the 
Alps,' '/^Thames.' 

(d) to signify a class, with nouns in the singular number or with 
adjectives: * Ahorse,' 'the o.nt*; *M*rich,' 'the wise. 1 

(e) in colloquial language with emphasis on the word the, to mark a 
superlative : 'Here comes the cricketer,' meaning ' the best cricketer.' 

(/*) as an adverb with comparatives: 'the more the better.' This 
signifies 'by that much the more by so much the better, ' 



ADJECTIVES. 41 

2. What are the chief uses of an ox at 

(a) to signify one: 'three men in a boat,' 'two of a trade.' 

(b) to signify any one: 'If a body meet a body/ 

(c) to signify a certain one\ l A man told me there was a fire.' 

3. When is an used instead of a ? 

Before words beginning with a vowel, or a silent h, as in A«;r, hottest. 
But words beginning with a.y, or with a « which has the sound of y 
before it, take a: thus we say 'an utter failure,' but 'a useful machine.' 

57. Comparison of Adjectives. — The only in- 
flexion of Adjectives, which survives in modern English, is 
that of Comparison. 

What do we mean by the Comparison of Adjectives ? 

If we say, ' The sheep is black/ we assert that the sheep 
has a quality called c blackness.' Now blackness is a quality 
which varies in its amount : there are different shades of 
blackness. One sheep may be blacker than another. And 
there are many qualities, such as height, weight, speed, 
cleverness, which vary far more than blackness. To indi- 
cate these variations we modify our adjectives; and this 
modification is called Comparison. 

Thus, when I say, 'John is tall, Charles is taller, but 
Henry is the tallest of the three/ I assert that the quality of 
tallness is present in John ; present to a greater extent in 
Charles ; and present to a still greater extent in Henry. 
The adjectives tall, taller, and tallest, are said to be respec- 
tively in the Positive, the Comparative, and the Superlative 
Degree. 

58. Comparison not applicable to all Adjec- 
tives. — If an adjective denotes a quality which cannot 
vary in amount, that adjective will not admit of Degrees of 
Comparison. 

Refer to the examples, given in § 55, of adjectives belonging to 
different classes. You will understand from their meaning that none of 
the Demonstrative Adjectives and none of the Definite Adjectives of 
Quantity can be compared, while of the Indefinite Adjectives of 



42 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

Quantity only a few admit of Comparison. Thus, we can compare 
many, much, little, few, but not any, all, some, half, several. 

Adjectives of Quality remain, and to some even of these comparison 
is inapplicable, on account of their meaning. For — 

(i) The adjective in the positive degree may already express the 
presence of the quality in the greatest conceivable extent : thus, extreme, 
universal, full, empty, top, infinite, perfect, if used literally, cannot be 
compared. When we say, ' This glass is emptier than that, ' ' Yours is a 
more perfect specimen/ we are evidently employing the words empty and 
perfect in an inexact sense. 

(ii) The adjective may denote the presence of a quality which does 
not vary in its amount : e.g. wooden, circular, monthly, English. 

59. Formation of Comparatives and Superla- 
tives. — There are two ways of forming the Degrees of 
Comparison : — 

i. Add to the Positive -er to form the Comparative and 
-est to form the Superlative, in the case of all words of one 
syllable and some words of two syllables, especially those in 
-er, -le, -y, as clever, able, merry. 

2. Use the adverbs more, most, before the Positive. 

Notice the following changes of spelling when the in- 
flexions marking comparison are added : 

(i) If the Positive ends in -e, cut off the -e : e.g. grav-er, larg-er. 

(ii) If in y, change the y to *, if a consonant precedes, as drier, 
merrier, but retain the y, if a vowel precedes, as gayer, greyer. (This 
is similar to the rule determining the spelling of plurals of nouns in -y.) 
Note that the adjective shy keeps the^. 

(iii) Monosyllabic words ending in a consonant preceded by a short 
vowel double the consonant to show that the vowel is short: hotter, 
thinner, redder. 

60. Irregular Comparison. — The following Com- 
parisons are irregular, that is to say, they do not conform to 
the general rules stated above 1 . In many instances defi- 

1 For remarks on these forms, see The Elements of English Gram- 
mar (Pitt Press Series), pp. in — 12. 



ADJECTIVES. 



43 



ciencies have been supplied by borrowing words from other 
adjectives : defect is one kind of irregularity. 



Positive, 


Comparative, 


Superlative, 


Good 


better 


best 


Bad 


worse 


worst 


Little 


less 


least 


Much, many 


more 


* most 


Nigh 


nigher 


nighest, next 


Near 


nearer 


nearest 


Fore 


former 


foremost, first 


Far 


farther 


farthest 


[Forth] 


further 


furthest 


Late 


later, latter 


latest, last 


Old 


older, elder 


oldest, eldest 


Hind 


hinder 


hindmost, hindermost 


[In] 


inner 


inmost, innermost 


[Out] 


outer, utter 


utmost, uttermost 


[Up] 


upper 


upmost, uppermost 


Rathe 


[rather] 





The positive forms in brackets are adverbs : corresponding adjectives 
exist only in the comparative and superlative. 



QUESTIONS. 

1. Limit the application of the following nouns by prefixing (i) 
Qualitative, (2) Quantitative, (3) Demonstrative Adjectives : — books, 
f?ieat, cows, river, ideas. 

2. Refer to its class each Adjective in the following sentences : — 
'That idle boy learns nothing useful.' — 'Most men have some favourite 
amusement.' — 'Few poor people live in aristocratic neighbourhoods.' — 
' No face is exactly the same on both sides.' — 'Two removals are as bad 
as afire.' — 'All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.' 

3. Write three sentences containing an Adjective used as a Noun, 
and three containing a Noun used as an Adjective. 

[For the latter part of the Question, such nouns as gold, iron, cotton, 
church, railway, will serve. Think of others. ] 

What does dead mean, when we speak of 'a dead level,' 'a dead 
heat,' 'a dead shot'?. 

4. In consequence of the omission of the nouns which they limit, 
the following Adjectives are treated as nouns and used in the plural 
number. Name the missing nouns: — contemporaries, greens, incapablcs, 
italics, extremes, brilliants, worthies, empties, capitals. 



44 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

5. Form Adjectives from the following nouns : — sleep, brass, truth, 
east, shade, love, vice, price, fool, trouble, rag, fire, disaster, courage, 
heart. 

Attach each Adjective to a suitable noun. 

6. Would you put a or an before each of the following words? — 
ewe, heir, house, union, honour, humble, historian, urn, hearse, use. 

7. Make sentences in which the following Adjectives are used 
predicatively : — blue, clean, ill, glad, splendid, alone, loud, alike, infirm, 
sorry. 

Which of these Adjectives can be used attributively also? 

[Some of the above Adjectives cannot be used attributively at all. 
Others can be so used only in particular phrases ; e.g. 'an ill wind,' 
'glad tidings.'] 

8. Substitute Abstract Nouns equivalent to the following expres- 
sions : — 'the sublime and beautiful/ 'the true,' 'the absurd.' 

What is the meaning of the brave and the fair in Dryden's line, — 
' None but the brave deserve the fair ' ? 

9. Which of the following Adjectives, if rightly employed, do not 
admit of Comparison? — general, annual, long, square, golden, Asiatic, 
void, everlasting, extravagant, indispensable. 

10. Write sentences into which you introduce — 

(a) the Comparative of happy, idle, clever, saucy, big, gay, dry, 
ridiculous: 

(b) the Superlative of free, usual, shy, red, beautiful, much, un- 
fortunate, few. 

11. Make sentences which illustrate the difference in our use of 
nearest and next, latest and last, oldest and eldest, less and fewer, few 
and a few. 

1 2. Mention some Comparatives which cannot be followed by than. 
[The folloVing are examples '.—junior, exterior, major, inner, latter. 

Think of a few more.] 

13. Milton speaks of 'the rathe primrose.' What does rathe 
mean? Show that a similar meaning is present in the comparative 
Adverb rather. 

[Rathe means ' early.' What word do we often use instead of rather 
in such an expression as ' I would rather not go ' ?] 



CHAPTER X. 

Pronouns. 

61. A Pronoun is a word used instead of a 
noun. 

This definition calls attention to a useful service, which most Pro- 
nouns perform, in saving the repetition of the Noun. But there is an 
important difference between Nouns and Pronouns. A Noun has a 
uniform meaning of its own : it always indicates an object of the same 
kind. If I say, ' The horse ran away, ' you know the particular class of 
objects to which the thing that ran away belonged. But the meaning 
of a Pronoun varies with every change in its application. If I say, * It 
ran away,' it may signify a horse, or a dog, or a locomotive, or any 
other object to which I am making reference. When a master 
and a pupil are talking together, the master calls himself / and the 
pupil you, while the pupil calls the master you and himself /. 
According to circumstances, anything can be it, this, that, but the 
words master, pupil, horse, are invariable in meaning, and can be 
applied only to things belonging to particular groups. 

62. Different kinds of Pronouns. 

(i) Some Pronouns are used exclusively as substitutes 
for nouns. 

(2) Others are used both as substitutes for nouns and 
as adjectives limiting nouns. 

(3) A few so-called Pronouns are now used only as 
adjectives, but they are usually dealt with under the head of 
pronouns, because they are connected with pronouns in their 
origin. 

Thus, (1) he and who are used only as nouns. We cannot say 'he 
man,' or *who boy.' 



46 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 



But (2) that and what are used both as nouns and as adjectives. We 
can say, 'Give me that, 1 or 'Give me that book 1 '; ' What did you do?' 
or ' What business did you do?* 

Lastly (3) my and your are used only as adjectives. We can say, 
' My book is lost,* but not ' My is lost'; 'Lend me your book? not 'Lend 
me your, 9 

Applying these distinctions in our classification of Pro- 
nouns, we arrange these words in the following groups : — 

Table of Pronouns. 

Used only as Nouns, Used as Adjectives also* 

I. Personal — I, we: thou, 

you, ye 
II. Demonstrative — he, she, 
it, they 

III. Reflexive — myself, your- 

self, himself 

IV. Relative — that, who 
V. Interrogative — who 

VI. Indefinite — anybody, 
anything, aught, some- 
body, something 
VII. Distributive — every- 
body, everything 

Used now only as Adjectives, 
VIII. Possessive — my, our; thy, your; her, its, their. 

The Possessives ours, yours, hers, theirs, are used when no noun 
follows them, and in this respect they resemble nouns, but their force is 
purely adjectival. The same remarks apply to mine and thine in 
modern diction. His admits of use either with or without a noun 
following. 



this, these; that, those 



what, which 
what, which 
one, any, certain, other, some 



each, every, either, neither 



63. I. Personal Pronouns.- 
First, Second, and Third Persons are 

Pronoun of Pronoun of 

1st Person ind Person 

Sing, Plur, Sing, Plur, 

Nom. I we thou ye, you 

Obj, me us thee ye, you 

[""my our thy your 

limine ours thine yours 



Poss, 



—The Pronouns of the 
declined thus : — 

Pronoun of 

yd Person 



Sing. 

F, 

she 

him her 

his her 

hers 



M. 
he 



N. 
it 
it 
its 



Plur, 

they 
them 
their "1 
theirsj 



PRONOUNS. 47 

Remarks. — (i) The Pronoun of the Third Person belongs properly 
to the Demonstratives. 

Its is a modern word. It appears once in the Authorized Version of 
the Bible (Levit. xxv. 5) as it is now printed, but not in the original 
edition of 161 1. His was formerly the genitive case of both he and it: 
'If the salt have lost his savour.' 

(2) The forms of these Pronouns in the Possessive case are used no 
longer as Personal Pronouns, but only as Possessive Adjectives. 'Envy 
of them'' is not now expressed by saying ' their envy,' nor 'fear of me'' 
by saying 'my fear.' But in 1 Pet. iii. 14, 'Be not afraid of their terror' 
means 'Be not afraid of the terror of them? and in Ps. v. 7, 'In thy fear 
will I worship' means ' In the fear of Thee will I worship.' This is the 
reason why we have enclosed these forms in brackets : they belong to 
the Personal Pronouns by origin, but have become purely adjectival 
in force. 

(3) Thou is used only in addressing God and in the language of 
poetry. But half a century ago the Quakers employed thou and thee in 
ordinary speech. The plural you is now used exclusively, whether we 
are addressing several individuals or only one. 

(4) The dative me survives in methinks y meseems^ 'woe is me,' and 
as the indirect object, e.g. 'Do me a service'; here me is equivalent to 
'for me' or 'to me.' 

64. II. Demonstrative Pronouns. — This and 
that are used both as nouns and as adjectives. 

This and that are employed to denote the latter and the former, — 
this the one nearer to us, that the one farther away. Both these and 
those are really forms of the plural of this ; but these alone is now used 
as the plural of this, while those is used as the plural of that. 

65. III. Reflexive Pronouns. — Myself, ourselves, 
yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself themselves, oneself, 
are Reflexive Pronouns. They are also used without any 
reflexive force, for the purpose of marking emphasis. 

(1) 'Take care of yourself,' 'They killed themselves.' In such 
sentences we have the reflexive use of these pronouns : the action per- 
formed by the doer passes back to him, so both the subject and the 
object of the sentence stand for the same person. 

(2) 'Take care yourself,' 'They themselves killed it.' In such 
sentences we have the emphatic use of these pronouns : there is nothing 
reflexive in their meaning here. 



4 8 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

66. IV. Relative Pronouns The Relative Pro- 
nouns are that, who, what, which, and rarely as. Their 
characteristic feature is this : they have the force of 
conjunctions. If, therefore, we called them Conjunctive 
Pronouns, this term would be more appropriate than the 
name Relative. Thus, the sentence ' I met the policeman 
who said there was a disturbance ' contains two sentences 
rolled into one : ( The policeman said there was a disturb- 
ance. I met him.' 'This is the book that you lent me' 
may be resolved into l You lent me a book. This is it.' 

The noun or pronoun to which the Relative refers is 
called the antecedent, i.e. that which goes before. 

The relative is often omitted when, if expressed, it would be in the 
objective case. Thus, 'the man I met,' is an elliptical form of expres- 
sion for ' the man whom I met ' ; ' the book you lent me ' is elliptical for 
'the book which you lent me.' 

When what is used as a relative, the antecedent is always omitted : 
'I understand what you mean.' It is contrary to modern idiom to insert 
that in such a sentence before what. 

From who, what, which, we have formed compound relatives whoso- 
ever, whichsoever, whatsoever. Whosoever is declined as follows : — 

Nom. whosoever, Obj. who?nsoever, Possess, whosesoever. 

67. Pronouns both Relative and Interrogative. 
— The words who, what, which, are used both as Relatives 
and as Interrogatives. 

Who is used only as a noun : we cannot say who man. It has three 
cases, who, whom, whose, in singular and plural. 

What is the neuter of who and can be used both as noun and adjec- 
tive. What is used as an Interrogative in ' What did he say?' Here it 
has the force of a noun. ' What remark did he make?' Here it is 
adjectival. It is used as a Relative in 'I don't know what he said.' 
Here it has the force of a noun. 'I don't know what remark he made.' 
Here it is adjectival. 

Which can be used as noun or adjective, both as Interrogative and 
as Relative. ' Which will you have?' ' Which book will you have?' 
'I know which I will have,' 'I know which book I will have.' 

Which as a Relative pronoun is no longer used of persons, though it 
was so used formerly : e.g. ' Our Father, which art in heaven.' 



PRONOUNS, 49 

68. Different Uses of * That.'— The word that is 
sometimes a Demonstrative Pronoun (or Demonstrative 
Adjective, if it limits the meaning of a noun) ; sometimes a 
Relative Pronoun ; and sometimes not a Pronoun at all, but 
a Conjunction. You may be puzzled, at first, to determine, 
in some particular instance, to which of these classes the 
word belongs. Decide the point by applying the following 
tests. If you can substitute this for that, the word is a 
Demonstrative. If you can substitute which (or who or 
whom), the word is a Relative. If you cannot substitute 
either this or which, who, or whom, the word must be a 
Conjunction. 

Try these experiments upon the following sentences : — 
(i) Lend me that book. 

(2) That is my book. 

(3) The book that you lent me is lost. 

(4) You said that I had lost your book. 

In (1) that is a Demonstrative Adjective, limiting book; in (1) that is 
a Demonstrative Pronoun : in both of these sentences this might take 
the place of that without producing any serious alteration in the sense. 

In (3) that is a Relative Pronoun : its equivalent would be which, 

In (4) that is a Conjunction : neither this nor which would make 
sense. 

Notice that in (2) which would make sense, but the sense would be 
entirely different. Here which would be an Interrogative Pronoun, and 
the sentence would contain a question, instead of expressing a state- 
ment. Now you know that the word that, whatever else it may be, is 
never an Interrogative Pronoun. 

69. Different Uses of the Relatives. — Note care- 
fully the following points in which our use of that differs 
from our use of who or which as a Relative Pronoun. 

(1) That is used of persons and things, whilst who is used of 
persons only and which of things. 

(2) That cannot follow a preposition : if that is used as the rela- 
tive, the preposition is tacked on at the end of the sentence. Thus, 
'The man in whom I trusted' becomes 'The man that I trusted in'; 
'The house of which you told me' becomes 'The house that you told me 
of\ 'The means by zvhich he did it* becomes 'The means that he did 
it by: 

W. G. B. 4 



So ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

(3) That has a restrictive force which renders it unsuitable some- 
times as the substitute for who or which, I can say, 'My sister that is 
abroad is ill/ because I may have several sisters, and the clause intro- 
duced by that limits the application of the noun to one of the number. 
But I cannot say, 'My mother that is abroad is ill,' because the restric- 
tive that would suggest that I have more mothers than one, which is 
absurd. I must say, 'My mother who is abroad,' which signifies, 'My 
mother, and she is abroad,' the word who having a coordinating force 
in uniting two coordinate statements, 'My mother is ill,' 'My mother is 
abroad. ' 

70. VI. Indefinite Pronouns. — The following are 
the principal Indefinite Pronouns : — one, any, aught, other, 
some and its compounds, somebody, something. 

71. VII. Distributive Pronouns. — Each, every, 
either, are used to indicate things taken separately : hence 
they are called Distributive Pronouns. 

Each may be used both as noun and as adjective, 'Give one to each? 
4 Give one to each boy? 

Every is used only when we are speaking of more than two objects. 
We should not say, 'Give one to every boy,' unless there were at least 
three. In modern English, every is always followed by a noun : thus, 
we do not say, 'Give one to every? 

Either means 'one of two.' Thus, 'Here are two books: choose 
either. * The negative of either is neither. 

Each, every, either, and neither, are followed by a verb in the 
singular. 

Each other and one another express reciprocity. If A hits B, and 
B hits A, we say that they hit each other. If the parties concerned 
are more than two in number, we say that they hit one another. 

72. VIII. Possessives. — The words my, thy, his, her, 
its, our, your, their, and the forms mine, thine, hers, ours, 
yours, theirs, are possessive cases of the Pronouns of the 
First, Second, and Third Persons. They are therefore 
Pronouns by origin, but they have now become Adjectives 
in use. 

In modern speech we employ the Possessives belonging to the two 
groups with this difference. We use my, thy, her, its, our, your, their, 
if a noun immediately follows. We use mine, thine, hers, ours, yaurs % 



PRONOUNS. 51 

theirs •, if the noun, which they limit, does not follow them. His is used 
in both ways. 

Thus we say, 'Give me my book and take yours? not 'Give me 
mine book and take your? But we say, 'This is his book' and 'This 
book is his. ' 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Rewrite the following sentence without using any of the Pro- 
nouns : — ' The master lent the boy one of his books and told him that he 
was to return it to him when his sister had read it.' 

1. Classify the Pronouns in the sentence, — 'Who is the author of 
that book which you and I were reading this morning? ' 

3. Make a sentence containing a Personal Pronoun in the Objective 
case and a Relative Pronoun in the Possessive case. 

4. Construct three sentences containing respectively who, whom, 
and that, used as Relative Pronouns. 

5. Write sentences in which himself, yourselves, occur, (1) with a 
reflexive force, (2) with an emphatic force. 

'And I myself sometimes despise myself.' Distinguish the uses of 
myself \n this line. 

6. Refer the word that to its proper class each time it occurs in the 
following sentences : — 'You gave me that stamp.' — ' That is the stamp 
that you gave me.' — 'Give me that? — 'You promised that you would 
give me that stamp.' — 'You declared that that that that man said was 
untrue. 5 

7. Are any corrections needed in the following expressions? — 
'That's him.' — 'This is the man as robbed me.' — 'Avoid such games 
which require much time.' — 'I saw your father that is at Brighton.' — 
'Trees are planted on either side of the road.' — ' Give the book to who- 
soever you please.' — 'The one true lover which you ever had.' — 'The 
winds who take the ruffian billows by the top.' — 'Either of the first six 
boys is likely to get the prize. ' 

8. Name the class to which each of the italicised Pronouns belongs 
in the following sentences: — ' 'Whatsoever things are of good report, 
think of these things.' — i We speak that we do know.' — 'Who digs a 
pit for others, falls into it himself.' — ' Their sound went into all the 
earth.' — 'It is we that are blind, not Fortune.' — 'Let him that earns 
eat.' — 'What is this life of oursV — ' What is known to three is known 
to everybody? — 'One ploughs, another sows; who will reap, no one 
knows.' — ' They laugh that win.' — ' Whosoever will be great among you, 
let him be your servant.' — 'Owe no man anything, but to love one 
another. ' — ' Let each esteem other better than themselves? — ' Who values 
that anger which is consumed only in empty menaces?' 



CHAPTER XL 

Verbs. 

73. A Verb is a word with which we can 
make an assertion. 

We make assertions about things. The word which 
stands for the thing about which we make the assertion 
is called the Subject of the verb, or the Subject of the 
sentence. As the names of things are nouns, the subject 
must be a noun or its equivalent, such as a pronoun, 
a verb in the infinitive mood, or a noun- clause. Thus 
we may say, — 

Error (Noun) 

It (Pronoun) Lis human. 

To err {Infinitive) 

That one should err (Noun-clause) t 

When we make an assertion about a thing, we are said 
in grammatical language to predicate something about the 
thing. As no assertion can be made without the use of 
a verb, the verb is called the Predicate of the subject, 
or of the sentence in which it occurs. 

What is asserted is either action or state. Action is 
asserted when we say, ' The prisoner stole the watch/ * The 
watch was stolen by the prisoner/ * The prisoner ran away.' 
State is asserted when we say, 'The prisoner was glad,' 
1 The prisoner continued unrepentant/ * The prisoner slept 
soundly/ 



VERBS. 53 

74. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs. — Some 
verbs denote actions which are directed towards, or pass 
over to, certain objects. Other verbs denote actions which 
are confined to the agents performing them. When I say, 
1 The boy kicked the dog and then ran away/ I assert that 
the boy performed two actions ; but the two actions differed 
in this respect. The action of kicking produced an effect on 
an object outside the boy: it passed beyond the boy to the 
dog. But the action of running away terminated with the 
boy : there was no object by which an action of this sort 
could be received. 

The distinction between Transitive and Intransitive 
Verbs is one of great importance. We may define these 
verbs as follows: — 

A Transitive Verb is one which indicates an 
action directed towards some object. 

An Intransitive Verb is one which indicates 
(i) an action not directed towards some object, 
or (2) a state. 

The word Object has unfortunately to serve for two 
purposes. Sometimes it stands for the thing affected by 
an action, and sometimes for the word which represents this 
thing. Bear in mind therefore that, — 

The Object of a verb is the word which stands for 
the thing which is the object of the action denoted by 
the verb. 

It would be a concise description of a Transitive 
Verb to say that it is a Verb that can take an Object. 

75. Cognate Objectives. — Do not suppose however that a verb is 
necessarily Transitive because you find a noun following it. Intrans- 
itive verbs are sometimes accompanied by a noun of kindred meaning. 
If I say, 'He walked a mile,' 'He ran a race,' I do not mean that the 
action of walking passed over to the mile, or the action of running to 
the race. 'A mile' and 'a race' describe the degree, or the manner, 
in which the actions were performed. They resemble adverbs in their 
force; and are used just as we should use adverbs, if we said, 'He 
walked far* 'He ran fast.'' The nouns thus used with Intransitive Verbs 
are called Cognate Objectives, or Adverbial Objectives. 'To dream a 



54 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

dream,' 'to sleep the sleep (of death,)' 'to play a game,' are illustrations 
of the same construction. 

76. Intransitive Verbs used as Transitives. — 

Intransitive verbs are used as Transitives in the following 
ways : — 

i. A Verb, generally Intransitive, is sometimes em- 
ployed with a Transitive force : thus, — 

Intransitive. Transitive, 

The horse walks. I walked my horse. 

He ran there. He ran the ship aground. 

The ship floats. He floated the ship. 

Birds fly. The boys are flying their kites. 

The mother rejoiced. The mother rejoiced her son's heart. 

2. Prepositions following Intransitive Verbs may be 
regarded as forming with them compound verbs which 
are Transitive. Thus ' I laughed (intrans.) at him/ where 
the preposition at takes an objective case him, becomes 
' I laughed-at (transitive) him/ where the him is the object 
of the verb. The passive construction can then be em- 
ployed, and we can say ' He was laughed-at.' So, * We 
arrived at this conclusion ' becomes in the passive i This 
conclusion was arrived-at ' : ' They came to this decision ' 
becomes 4 This decision was come-to/ 

77. Transitive Verbs used Intransitively. — 
Conversely, there are a few Transitive Verbs which are 
occasionally employed as Intransitives. The following 
sentences contain examples of this two-fold use : — 

Transitive. Intransitive. 

He broke the glass. The glass broke. 

They moved the boat. The boat moved. 

I slammed the door. The door slammed. 

He opened the lid. The lid opened. 

The sun melted the snow. The snow melted. 

We reformed the criminal. The criminal reformed. 



VERBS. 55 

78. Verbs of Incomplete Predication. — Many 
Intransitive verbs make no sense as predicates, unless they 
are followed by some noun, adjective, or verb in the infinitive 
mood. To say, 'You are/ 'They can,' 'We became,' 'He 
will,' ' She seems/ is meaningless until we add some word 
to complete the sense. Thus we give significance to these 
incomplete assertions, if we say, 'You are idle/ 'You are 
secretary/ ' You are elected/ ' They can speak French/ 
'We became rich/ 'We became partners/ 'He will win/ 
' She seems vexed.' Such verbs are called Verbs of Incom- 
plete Predication, and the word or words which are added 
to make sense are called the Complement of the Predicate. 
The noun, which follows an Intransitive verb of this de- 
scription as its Complement, is of course in the nominative 
case, not in the objective. 

Certain Transitive verbs require, always or in some of 
their uses, a similar complement. If we say, 'The king 
made a treaty/ the sense is complete : but if we say, ' The 
king made Walpole/ the sense is incomplete until we add 
the complement 'a peer/ or ' angry/ or 'continue minister.' 
The verb ' called ' is a complete predicate in the sentence 
' The master called his valet/ meaning ' summoned him to 
his presence ' : it is an incomplete predicate, if it signifies 
' applied a name to him/ until the name is added ; ' The 
master called his valet a thief/ or 'lazy.' 'I think you' 
requires 4 a genius/ ' clever/ ' mad/ to complete the sense. 

79. Auxiliary and Notional Verbs. — When we come to the conju- 
gation of the verb, we shall see that most of the different forms are 
made by means of other verbs, which are therefore called Auxiliaries 
(from Lat. auxilium, 'help/ because they help to conjugate the verb). 
The different parts of the verbs be, have, will, shall, may, do, are 
employed as Auxiliaries, and when so employed are the substitutes for 
inflexions, of which in our English conjugation very few survive. 

But the verbs be, have, will, shall, may, do, possess meanings of 
their own, which are dropped when the words are used as auxiliaries. 
'He will do it' may mean ' He is determined to do it,' as well as 'He 
is going to do it.' In the former case will is not an auxiliary, in the 
latter it is. Have signifies possess, when I say, ■ 1 have a bicycle, ' but it 



56 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

is merely auxiliary, when I say, 'I have lost my bicycle. ' May 
means permission in 'You may try if you like'; it is auxiliary, when we 
say, * You won't find out, though you may try your best.' Verbs which 
are used with a meaning of their own, and not merely as substitutes for 
inflexions in the conjugation of other verbs, are called Notional Verbs. 

80. Impersonal Verbs. — An Impersonal Verb is one in which the 
source of the action is not expressed. 

A true Impersonal Verb therefore has no subject. Only two ex- 
amples of true Impersonals occur in modern English, methinks and me- 
seems, and these words are seldom used in every-day speech. Me is a 
dative case: hence it cannot be the subject. The meaning of the two 
Impersonals is the same, viz. ' It seems to me.' 

'It rains, 7 'it freezes,' and similar expressions are commonly called 
Impersonal, but they have a grammatical subject, it. If we are asked 
however, *What rains?' 'What freezes?' we cannot specify the thing 
for which the it stands: the grammatical subject represents no real source 
of the action. 

QUESTIONS. 

i. To what class does each of the verbs in the following sentences 
belong? — 'I can do this.' — 'How hard it snowed.' — 'He slept soundly.' 
— 'They called him John.' — 'You look foolish.' — * We praised him.' 

2. Became, thought, is, seems, made, appeared, choose, looks, named. 

(a) Which of these nine verbs are Intransitive? 

(b) Form sentences to illustrate the use of each of the nine verbs 
as a Verb of Incomplete Predication, and point out its Complement. 

(c) Show by examples that some of these verbs may be used as 
Predicates without any Complement. 

3. Write sentences to show the Transitive use of the verbs which 
are used Intransitively in the following examples: — 'The wind blew, 
the shutters rattled, the floor shook, and the glass cracked.' — 'Milk 
turns in thundery weather.' — 'Clothes spoil at the sea-side.' — 'Wine 
improves with keeping.' — 'Buds open in spring.' — 'How far does his 
fame extend?' — 'The clock struck.' 

4. Write sentences to show the Intransitive use of the verbs which 
are used Transitively in the following examples: — 'He banged the 
door.' — 'Ice keeps the butter fresh.' — 'I ran a pin into my finger.' — 
'They rolled the logs down the hill.'— 'Ring the bell.'— 'You will 
smash the window.' — ' It does not pay farmers to grow corn in England.' 

5. Treat the verbs in the following sentences — 

(a) as Transitives, and insert an Object : 

(b) as Intransitives, and insert an Adverbial Objective : 

'He survived.' — 'I ran.'-— 'He is swimming.' — 'We must walk." 



CHAPTER XII. 
The Verb Finite. 

81. English verbs retain few Inflexions. — 
Verbs undergo changes of form to mark differences of 
Voice, Mood, Tense, Number, Person. As Inflexions have 
almost entirely disappeared from English verbs, we have 
recourse to Auxiliary verbs and Pronouns to express these 
differences. An ordinary Latin verb has over a hundred 
inflexions : an ordinary English verb has seven, only four 
of which are in common use. The verb love, for example, 
has the forms love, lovest, loves, loveth, loved, lovedst, loving, 
but of these seven, the three forms lovest, loveth, lovedst, are 
no longer employed in every-day speech. 

Let us take the distinctions of Voice, Mood, Tense, 
Number, and Person, in turn, and consider the means by 
which they are expressed in English. 

82. I. Voice. — There are two Voices, an Active and 
a Passive Voice.. 

Compare the two statements, ' He kicked/ and ' He 
was kicked/ The same word he is the subject of each 
sentence, — the nominative to each verb. But in the first 
statement, the subject he stands for the doer of the act of 
kicking, while in the second statement, the subject he stands 
for the object, or receiver, of the act of kicking. In the 
first sentence, the verb is said to be in the Active Voice ; . 
in the second, it is said to be in the Passive. 



58 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

Voice is the form of a verb which shows 
whether the subject of the sentence stands for 
the doer, or for the object, of the action expressed 
by the verb. 

The Active Voice is that form of a verb which shows 
that the subject of the sentence stands for the doer of the 
action expressed by the verb. 

The Passive Voice is that form of a verb which shows 
that the subject of the sentence stands for the object of the 
action expressed by the verb. 

The parts of the auxiliary verb be are used with the 
perfect participle of a transitive verb to form the passive 
voice : ' I a?n injured/ ' You were beaten/ * He is captured/ 
'They will be assisted/ ' We have been turned out.' 

83. Tne Verb 'be* with Intransitive Past Participles. — You may 
easily be misled by such forms as 'I am come/ 'You are arrived/ 'He 
is gone/ 'They are fallen/ and may mistake them for passive tenses, 
seeing that they are constructed in the same way as the passive tenses 
'I am injured,' 'You are beaten/ 'He is captured.' Notice this impor- 
tant difference however. Injur -ed, beaten, captured, are passive parti- 
ciples, and in combination with 'I am/ 'You are/ 'He is/ they form 
passive tenses. But come, arrived, gone, fallen, are participles of intrans- 
itive verbs, and therefore active participles (for intransitive verbs have 
no passive voice) : hence, when combined with 'I am,' 'You are/ 'He 
is, ' they form active tenses, and our idiom allows us to say either ' I 
have come/ 'You have arrived/ 'He has gone/ or 'I am come/ 'You 
are arrived/ 'He is gone.' 

84. Only Transitive Verbs admit of a Passive 
use. — When a verb is used in the Passive voice, the subject 
of the verb represents the object of the action. But In- 
transitive verbs take no object in the Active voice: there 
can therefore be no subject of an Intransitive verb in the 
Passive. 

85. Alternative forms of Passive construction. — Verbs which take 
a Double Object admit of two forms of passive construction, according 



THE VERB FINITE. 



59 



as one object or the other is made the subject of the passive verb. A 
few illustrations will make this clear. 

Active. Passive. 

He told me a story. \ * stor y ™* told me b ? him ' 
( I was told a story by him. 

You granted him ( Permission was granted him by you. 



permission. ( He was granted permission by you. 

They awarded him ( A prize was awarded him by them. 
a prize. ( He was awarded a prize by them. 

Construct further illustrations for yourself, using the verbs promise, 
ask, refuse, show, offer, forgive, for the purpose. 

86. Retained Object. — This object after the passive verb is called 
the Retained Object. Thus, in the sentence, * A story was told me by 
him,' me is the Retained Object. In the sentence, 'I was told a story 
by him,* story is the Retained Object. To determine whether the 
object thus retained is the Direct or the Indirect Object, apply the 
following test. With which of the objects can to ox for be used? That 
object will be the Indirect Object. In the sentence, 'A story was told 
me by him,' me is the equivalent of to me. Therefore vie is the Indirect 
Object. 

87. Quasi-Passive Verbs. — There is a curious use of certain trans- 
itive verbs in the active form with a passive meaning. Some of these 
verbs express sensations : we say of a thing that it ' feels soft, tastes nice, 
smells sweet, ' whereas it is really we who feel, taste, and smell the thing. 
In like manner we say that a sentence ''reads badly/ that a book * sells 
well,' and that a house 'lets readily.' 

88. II. Mood. — There are four Moods, which are 
called respectively Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive, and 
Infinitive. We shall deal with the Infinitive Mood in the 
next Chapter. 

Mood is the form of a verb which shows the 
mode or manner in which the event is repre- 
sented. 

89. Uses of the Moods. — Let us enumerate the 
purposes for which the different Moods are employed. 

(i) Uses of the Indicative Mood. — The Indicative 
Mood is used— 



6o ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

(i) To state facts: 'The man stole the watch, 
1 He will be punished.' 

(2) To ask questions: 'Which man stole the 
watch ? ■ i Will he be punished ? ' 

(3) To express suppositions in which the con- 
ditions are dealt with as if they were facts : * If it is fine to- 
morrow ' (the condition may be fulfilled, or it may not, but 
assuming that as a fact it is) 'we will go for a pic-nic.' 

(ii) Use of the Imperative Mood. — The Impera- 
tive Mood is used when we give commands. Commands 
must be addressed to the person who is to obey them. 
The person addressed is the second person. Accordingly, 
the Imperative Mood can be used only in the second 
person, singular and plural. 

(iii) Uses of the Subjunctive Mood. — The Sub- 
junctive Mood may be employed to express — 

(1) a wish : ' O that I were dead ! ' ''Perish idolatry !' 
' God save the Queen ! ' 

(2) a purpose : 'Work lest thou lose the prize/ 'Mind 
that the letter be written.' 

(3) uncertainty : ' I'll tell him so, whoever he be. 1 

(4) supposition : * If I were you, I would go.' 

90. Decay of the Subjunctive. — Two facts must be carefully borne 
in mind respecting the Subjunctive Mood in English : — 

(1) Very few Subjunctive forms remain in our verbs : 

(2) Very little use is made of those which do remain. 

(1) A tense which is expressed by a single word is called a Simple 
Tense : a tense which is expressed by the help of an auxiliary verb is 
called a Compound Tense. Confining our attention to the Simple 
Tenses, we observe that the verb to be has a fairly complete set of 
distinct forms for the Present Indicative and Present Subjunctive, and 
for the Past Indicative and Past Subjunctive. But in this respect it 
stands alone. In any other verb, the Past Subjunctive is the same as 
the Past Indicative, and the Present Subjunctive differs from the Present 
Indicative only in the 2nd and 3rd persons singular. Thus the sum- 
total of inflected forms of the Subjunctive in an ordinary verb, such 
as steal, amounts to two. In the Present Indicative we say Thou steeli- 
est, lie steals; in the Present Subjunctive we say If thou steal \ If he 



THE VERB FINITE. 61 

steal. But for the purposes of every-day intercourse we never employ 
the 2nd person singular at all. We should say to a man, 'You steal/ 
not * Thou stealest. ' It is only in the language of prayer and of poetry 
that the 2nd person singular is still used. Hence, so far as ordinary 
speech and writing are concerned, there is only one form, — that of the 
3rd person singular of the Present Tense, — in which the Subjunctive 
differs from the Indicative of any verb except the verb to be. Of the 
verb steal, for example, he steal, instead of he steals, is the solitary distinct 
form of the Subjunctive Mood which might possibly still be employed 
in conversation. 

The following are the Simple Tenses, Indicative and Subjunctive, 
of the Verbs to be and to steal: the Past Tense of the Subjunctive of to 
steal, and of other regular Verbs, has the same forms as the Past Tense 
of the Indicative. 

To Be To Steal 

Indicative Subjunctive Indicative Subjunctive 
Present Past Present Past Present Past Present 





1. 


am 


was 


be 


were 


steal 


stole 


steal 


Sing. • 


2. 


art 


wast 


be 


wert 


stealest 


stolest 


steal 




3- 


is 


was 


be 


were 


steals 


stole 


steal 


Plur. 1 


2,3- 


are 


were 


be 


were 


steal 


stole 


steal 



(2) Observe, in the next place, that we make but little use of those 
Subjunctive forms which we do possess. Do you ever hear people say, 
* If I be there, I will get it, L* Mind that everything be finished before 
dinner,' * If he work hard, he may win the prize '? They would be using 
the Subjunctive quite correctly, if they talked in this fashion ; but the Sub- 
junctive is used so seldom that expressions of this sort would strike us as 
rather strange. Unfortunately the Indicative has taken to a great 
extent the place of the Subjunctive, and, in the sentences quoted above, 
we should be inclined to use Indicative forms of the verb, and to say, 
'If I am there, I will get it,' 'Mind that everything is finished before 
dinner,' 'If he works hard, he may win the prize.' 

91. III. Tense. — Tense in English marks two things 
when we describe an occurrence, — the time when the event 
happened, and the degree of its completeness at that time. 
We may define the term as follows ; — 

Tense is the form of a verb which shows the 
time at which the event is represented as occur- 
ring, and the completeness or incompleteness of 
the event. 



62 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

We say that Tense marks the time at which the action 
is described as taking place. Now there can be only three 
kinds of Time, — Past, Present, and Future. Hence, if 
Tense indicated nothing but Time, there would be only 
three Tenses, — a Past, a Present, and a Future. 

But Tense marks also the degree of completeness 
of the action. If an action is completed, we may describe 
it as Perfect, which means ' finished/ or ' done.' If it is not 
completed, we may describe it as Imperfect, which means 
' unfinished/ or ' not yet done.' Again, though an action 
must at any particular moment be either done or not done, 
we may speak of it without referring to its being done or 
not done, and our mention of the action will then be, in 
this respect, Indefinite. 

Now, as a Past action, a Present action, and a Future 
action, may each of them be described as (i) Perfect, or 
finished; (2) Imperfect, or unfinished; or (3) the question 
of completeness may be left Indefinite, or undecided, we 
require nine Tenses to express these differences. 

92, Nine Primary Tenses. — The following Table 
illustrates, from the verb to write , the way in which these 
nine Tenses are formed. 



Time 


Imperfect, Incomplete, 
Unfinished, Progressive 


Perfect, Complete, 
Finished 


Indefinite 


Present 

Past 

Future 


I am writing 
I was writing 
I shall be writing 


I have written 

I had written 

I shall have written 


I write 
I wrote 
I shall write 



93. Remarks on the Tenses. 

i. Modes of Tense Formation. With the exception of the Present 
Indefinite and the Past Indefinite, all our tenses are formed by the use 
of Auxiliaries. The Past Indefinite (sometimes called the Preterite) 
undergoes inflexion to mark the change of time: *J wrote/ { \ walked.' 



THE VERB FINITE. 63 

A glance down the columns of Imperfect and of Perfect Tenses, as 
they appear in the Table, will enable you to see the principle on which 
these tenses are formed. The Imperfect Tenses are formed by com- 
bining some part of be with the Present Participle. The Perfect Tenses 
are formed by combining some part of have with the Past Participle. 
The Future Tenses are formed by combining the verbs shall and will 
with the infinitive mood. 

2. Perfect and Imperfect. Avoid the common mistake of fancying 
that these terms, when applied to tenses, have any reference to the time 
of the action. They refer only to its character as finished or as not yet 
finished. 

To gain a clear conception of this distinction, let us suppose that a 
boy walks from one side of the room to the other. How should we 
describe his action? We should say, 'He is walking across the room': 
the action is in progress : it is unfinished, or Imperfect. But it is going 
on at this moment and is therefore rightly described as Present Im- 
perfect. When he has finished walking across the room, we say, * He 
has reached the other side,' 'He has walked across the room.' Does 
this necessarily imply that the action is past? As soon as the action is 
finished, it is certainly past. But in saying, 'He has reached the other 
side, ' we are thinking rather that he is there now, than that the action 
belongs to past time. The action is ended, but it is only just ended, and 
its consequences continue present with us. If the action and its conse- 
quences are over and done with, the Perfect Tense is no longer appro- 
priate. We should not say, 'I have written a letter last week,' but 'I 
wrote a letter': the action took place some time ago. 'I have written 
a letter' signifies that my letter has just now been completed, and here 
it is. 

3. Advantages of onr Mode of Tense Formation. By the aid of 
Auxiliary Verbs, we are able to express distinctions of time and com- 
pleteness with a minuteness and accuracy to which inflexional languages, 
like Latin, are unable to attain. 

4. The Uses of the Present Indefinite should be noted : — 

(1) This tense occasionally expresses an action going on at the 
present time, but it does this very rarely : * How fast it rains ! ' 

(2) It expresses an action which is habitual, as 'He goes to town 
every morning,' and a general truth, as 'Water boils at 212V 

(3) It expresses a future action, as 'I go to town next week.' 

(4) It expresses a past action in vivid narrative. 'The Persians 
fress on; Leonidas /#/&, and the battle rages fiercely,' This is called 
the Historic Presents 



64 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

(5) It introduces quotations: * Shakespeare says,* * Xenophon de- 
Scribes? 'The Bible tells us,' 'Macaulay remarks? 



5. Weak and Strong Verbs. According to their mode of forming 
the Past Tense, verbs are called Weak or Strong. 

A Weak Verb is one which forms its past Tense by adding -ed, -d, 
or -/, to the present : walk-ed, love-d, dream-t. 

A Strong Verb is one which forms its Past Tense by change of vowel 
and without the addition of a suffix. 

The Past Participle of a Weak Verb is of the same form as the Past 
Tense: I walked, (I have) walked. 

The Past Participle of a Strong Verb (1) sometimes ends in -en, (2) 
sometimes has a different modification of the vowel from that of the 
Past Tense, and (3) sometimes is of the same form as the Past Tense: / 
drove, (I have) driven ; I sprang, (I have) sprung ; I stood, (I have) 
stood. 

6. Principal Parts of Strong and Weak Verbs. — The principal 
parts of our English Verb are the Present and the Past Tense Indica- 
tive and the Past Participle. When you are asked to give the principal 
parts of any unfamiliar verb, do not attempt to say them off mechani- 
cally, for, if you do, you will often say them wrong. Think of them as 
you would use them in ordinary conversation, with / or he before the 
Past Tense, and / have, or he has before the Past Participle. Thus, 
when trying to remember the parts of to spring, say, I spring, I sprang, 
I have sprung. Acting on this plan, you will generally get them right. 
But if you repeat them by rote, you may very likely say, spring, sprung, 
sprang, without discovering the blunder. 

At the end of this Chapter you will find lists containing many of the 
Strong and of the Weak Verbs, with the Past Tense and Past Participle 
of each. Several others are mentioned, but their Principal Parts have 
not been inserted. Make sure that you can supply the Principal Parts 
correctly yourself. 

94. IV. Number. — There are two Numbers in 
verbs. When the subject of the verb is in the Singular, the 
verb is in the Singular ; when the subject is in the Plural, 
the verb is in the Plural. Accordingly, — 

Number is the form of a verb which shows 
whether we are speaking of one thing or of more 
than one. 



THE VERB FINITE. 65 

95. V. Person. — When we dealt with Pronouns, we 
saw that there are Pronouns which represent respectively 
the First, Second, and Third Persons, in the Singular and 
the Plural Number. A corresponding distinction is made 
in Verbs, according to the Subject with which they are in 
agreement. Hence we may define Person as follows : — 

Person is the form assumed by a verb accord- 
ing as its subject stands for the speaker, for the 
person addressed, or for some other thing. 

Although we have an inflexion marking the Second 
Personal Singular, lov-est, loved-st, these forms do not occur 
in ordinary speech. 

The form of the Third Person Singular Present Indica- 
tive, lov-eth, is also obsolete in conversation. The suffix -s 
is the only inflexion of Person which survives in common 
use. 

96. Orthographical Modifications. — The follow- 
ing changes in spelling, when verbs take inflexions, should 
be noticed. 

1. An e at the end of the verb is dropped before another vowel : so, 
love, lov-ing; shape, shap-ing, shap-en. (Notice, however, singeing 
from singe, to avoid confusion with singing from sing.) 

2. To verbs ending in a sibilant, -es is added in the 3rd person 
singular of the present indicative and sounded as a distinct syllable: 
so pass-es, push-es, touch-es. 

3. After a consonant, y becomes ie when -j or ~d follows : so, rel-ies, 
rel-ied : but after a vowel, y is kept : so, plays, play-ed. (Compare the 
formation of plurals of- nouns in -y, e.g. lady, boy; and of comparatives 
of adjectives in -y, e.g. merry, gay.) 

4. In some verbs - ay ed is written -aid: so, laid, paid, said, 

5. A final consonant, preceded by an accented short vowel, is 
doubled before e and i, to mark the pronunciation as short : so, shop-p-ing, 
bid-d-en, excel- l-ed, prefer-r-ed; but differ-ed, dffer-ed. 

W. G. B. 5 



66 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 



97. List of Strong Verbs. 



Pres. Past P. Part. 


Pres. Past P. Part. 


abide abode abode 


ring rang rung 


awake awoke awoke 


. rive W. rived riven 


5 W. awaked awaked 


seethe sod sodden 


bear bore born 


W. seethed seethed 


(carry) bore borne 


sew W. sewed sewn, sewed 


behold beheld beheld (beholden) 


sow IV. sowed sown, sowed 


bid bade, bid bidden, bid 


shake shook shaken 


bind bound bound (bounden) 


shear (shore) shorn 


blow blew blown 


Jf. sheared sheared 


chide chid chidden, chid 


shine shone shone 


choose chose chosen 


(shew Jf. shewed shewn) 


cleave clave cloven 


show ^.showed shown 


W. cleft cleft 


shrink shrank shrunk (shrunken) 


crow crew 


sit sat sat 


W. crowed crowed 


slay slew slain 


dig dug dug 


slide slid (slidden) slid 


W. (digged) (digged) 


sling slung slung 


draw drew drawn 


slink slunk slunk 


drink drank drunk 


smite smote smitten 


eat ate eaten 


stride strode stridden 


fly flew flown 


strive strove striven 


forbear forbore forborne 


swear swore sworn 


forget forgot forgotten 


swell swollen 


forsake forsook forsaken 


^.swelled swelled 


get got got (gotten) 


tear tore (tare) torn 


grow grew grown 


thrive throve thriven 


hang hung hung 


throw threw thrown 


W. (hanged) (hanged) 


tread trod trodden (trod) 


hew hewed hewn, hewed 


wake woke woke 


lade laden 


W. waked waked 


W. laded laded 


wear wore worn 


lie lay lain 


weave wove woven 


mow mown 


win won won 


W. mowed mowed 


wring wrung wrung 



The forms given in brackets are those less frequently used, or used 
only in special phrases. 

The letter W. prefixed to forms in the list of Strong Verbs indicates 
that those forms are Weak. 

From the foregoing list of Strong Verbs the following examples are 
omitted : give the Past Tense and Past Participle of each : — arise, beat, 
begin, bite, break, burst t climb, cling, come, do, drive, fall, fight, find, 



THE VERB FINITE. 



67 



fling, freeze, give, go, grave, grind, heave, help, hide, hold, know, melt, 
ride, rise, run, see, shave, shoot, sing, sink, slit, speak, spin, spit, spring, 
stand, steal, sting, stink, strike, swim, swing, take, wind, write, 

98. List of Weak Verbs. 

The following verbs show a departure from the regular 
formation of the Past Tense and Past Participle in -d or -/. 



Pres. 


Past 


P. Part. 


Pres. 


Past 


P. Part. 


bend 


bent 


bent 


kneel 


knelt 


knelt 


bereave 


bereft 


bereft 


lay 


laid 


laid 




bereaved 


bereaved 


lean 


leaned 


leaned 


beseech 


besought 


besought 




leant 


leant 


betide 


betid 


betid 


learn 


learned 


learned 


bleed 


bled 


bled 




learnt 


learnt 


blend 


blended 


blent 


leave 


left 


left 






blended 


light 


lighted, lit lighted, lit 


breed 


bred 


bred 


make 


made 


made 


cast 


cast 


cast 


pen (confine) penned 


penned, pent 


catch 


caught 


caught 


pen (write) penned 


penned 


clothe 


clothed 


clothed 


read 


read 


read 




clad 


clad 


rend 


rent 


rent 


dream 


dreamed 


dreamed 


seek 


sought 


sought 




dreamt 


dreamt 


shoe 


shod 


shod 


flee 


fled 


fled 


speed 


sped 


sped 


gird 


girded 


girded 


weep 


wept 


wept 




girt 


girt 


work 


wrought 


wrought 


have 


had 


had 




worked 


worked 



Help had a Strong Past Part, holpen \ 'He hath holpen his servant 
Israel.' 

Had and made are contracted from haved and maked. 

Go (Past Part, gone) supplies its Past Tense went from wend, which 
is now inflected as a Weak Verb, wended. 

The following are additional examples of Weak Verbs: give the 
Past Tense and Past Participle of each : — bring, build, burn, buy, cost, 
creep, cut, deal, dwell, feed, feel, gild, hit, hurt, keep, knit, lead, leap, let, 
lose, mean, meet, put, rap, rid, rot, say, sell, send, set, shed, shred, shut, 
sleep, slit, smell, spell, spend, spill, split, spread, sweat, sweep, teach, tell, 
think, thrust, wend, wet, whet. 

QUESTIONS. 

i. Change into the Passive all the verbs in the following passage, 
without altering the meaning of the whole : — 'Jones shot my dog. I 
sued him for damages. My counsel made a capital speech. The jury 
awarded me two pounds as compensation. The defendant could not 



68 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

pay the money, so I gained nothing by the action. We made Jones a 
bankrupt, but that did me no good. 

i. Show that each of the following sentences may be expressed in 
two ways in the Passive. Point out in every instance the Indirect 
Object. — 'I forgive you the debt.' — 'They refused him a peerage, but 
offered him a baronetcy.' — 'He offered me the appointment.' — 'You 
must pay him his bill.' — 'The boy showed the head-master his verses.' 

3. Name the Voice, Mood, Tense, Number, and Person, of each of 
the Verbs in the following sentences : — ' By this time he will have been 
travelling for sixteen hours.' — 'The river has risen four inches since 
yesterday, is rising now, and will have overflowed its banks before even- 
ing.' — 'If you tell him anything, he always says he knew it before.' — 
'Heaven protect the right !' — 'They were arrested last month and have 
been convicted this morning: sentence will be passed to-morrow.' — 'I 
am sending word that we shall be going home next Friday.' — 'He 
treats me as if I were nobody.' — ' He found the ring which had been lost 
a year before.' — 'When you call to-morrow, I shall be playing the 
piano, and you will find that I know the piece I was learning when 
your last visit was paid.' 

4. Which of the verbs in the following sentences need correction? 
— 'Lay it on the table.' — 'He lay on the floor.' — 'The book has lain 
there since yesterday.' — 'The book has laid there since yesterday.' — 
' Let the hen lay there.' — ' Let the dog lay there.' — ' The river has over- 
flown its banks.' — 'He has ate up all the jam.' — 'If it be so, I have 
made a mistake.' — 'He was quite blowed, when he reached the post.' — 
'The town was smitten with pestilence. , — ' I was forsook by my friends.' 
— 'He was awoke at six o'clock. The bell had rang twice, and they 
had began breakfast. His father chided him for unpunctuality. ' 

5. Give the Past Participle of the Verbs — be, hope, split, seek, 
proffer, prefer, sew, sow, tie, freeze. 

6. To what Verbs do the following Past Participles belong 1—fled, 
flown, flung, brought, laden, shown, put, worn, crept, shot, espied, 
strewn, trodden, clad, chosen. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
The Verb Infinite. 

99. Verbs Finite and Infinite. — The verb walk 
suggests to our minds an action of a particular kind. When 
I say ' He walked/ I represent this action as limited in 
various ways : — limited as regards number, for it was one 
person who walked, not several ; limited as regards person, 
for it was he that walked, not / nor thou ; limited as regards 
the time when the action took place, for the walking is not 
described as occurring at the present moment, nor as going 
to occur in the future ; it occurred in the past. A verb, 
which expresses an action thus limited in respect of number, 
person, and time, is called a Finite Verb : the term finite 
means ' limited/ or 'restricted.' 

Let us compare the expression ' To walk ' with the state- 
ment 'He walked/ and note the difference between them. 
When I say ' To walk/ I suggest to your mind merely the 
action of walking. I do not tell you whether the action was 
performed by one agent or by more than one, nor do I tell 
you who did it, or when it was done. The meaning of the 
words ' To walk ' is free from those limitations of Number, 
Person, and Tense, which are attached to the words c He 
walked.' As ' He walked ' and similar forms are said to 
belong to the Verb Finite, so i To walk ' and similar forms 
are said to belong to the Verb Infinite,— the verb 'unli- 
mited/ or ' unrestricted.' 

We may define the Verb Infinite in these terms : — 



?o ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

The Verb Infinite consists of those forms of the verb, 
which denote actions or states without reference to person, 
number, or time. 

100. Parts of the Verb Infinite.— The Verb In- 
finite contains (i) the Infinitive Mood, (2) the Gerund, 
(3) the Verbal Noun, and (4) the Participles. 

Leaving for the present the treatment of the Participles, 
we will deal with the Infinitive, the Gerund, and the Verbal 
Noun. These three forms are illustrated in the following 
sentences : — 

* To give (Infinitive) prizes encourages hard work* ; 
1 Giving (Gerund) prizes encourages hard work'; 

i The giving of (Noun) prizes encourages hard work/ 

Now, whether we say * To give prizes,' or i Giving prizes,' 
or l The giving ^prizes,' our meaning is nearly the same as it 
would be, if we said ' The gift of prizes/ But gift is a 
Noun. Therefore the forms To give and Giving are equiva- 
lent to Nouns. And as they are parts of a verb, we might 
describe them as Verbal Nouns. The Infinitive is really a 
Verbal Noun : the Gerund is really a Verbal Noun. But 
there are differences between them, and to mark these differ- 
ences we call them by different names. There is a difference, 
again, between the words gift and giving, when we say * The 
gift of prizes ' and ' The giving of prizes/ As the term 
Noun is already applied to the word gift, we distinguish 
the word giving by calling it the Verbal Noun. And we 
have already distinguished the Noun giving, in 'Giving 
prizes/ from the Noun giving, in ' The giving of prizes/ by 
calling the former a Gerund. 

101. (1) Infinitive Mood. — The Infinitive Mood 
is equivalent to a Noun. It can be used as the subject or 
the object of a verb. Thus, we can say, — 

* To read improves the mind': to read is here subject. 
'He likes to read': to read is here object. 



THE VERB INFINITE. 71 

The infinitive resembles a noun in this respect also, that 
it can follow certain prepositions : e.g. ' I want nothing except 
to live quietly/ ' He has no hope but to escape punishment,' 
' You care for nothing save to make money/ 

The Infinitive Mood commonly occurs in modern English 
with to before it, but there are many verbs which are fol- 
lowed by an infinitive without to : the verbs may, can, shall, 
will, must, let, do. make, and certain verbs expressing sensa- 
tion, see, hear, feel, need, are examples. Thus, we say, i I can 
do it,' not ' I can to do it/ • You must go,' not ' You must to 
go, 1 i He saw it move, 1 not ' He saw it to move. 1 But after 
some of these verbs in the passive, to is inserted : ' He was 
seen to take it and made to return it.' 

102. (2) Gerund. — The Gerund is a Noun, but it 
possesses a peculiarity which distinguishes it from ordinary 
Nouns. Look at these examples of a Gerund : — 

* Studying mathematics improves the mind/ 
i He likes studying mathematics. 1 

Now substitute a noun in place of studying : — - 

'The study of mathematics improves the mind/ 

* He likes the study of mathematics 1 

You see the difference in the two constructions, The 
noun dependent on study is in the Possessive case ; we say 
'the study of mathematics. 1 But the noun which follows the 
Gerund studying is in the Objective case ; we say ' studying 
mathematics 1 The Gerund, though a noun, takes an object, 
just as the verb from which it is formed takes an object, 
and we say, ' studying mathematics/ just as we say, ' He 
studies mathematics.' 

The Infinitive can follow only a few Prepositions, but 
any Preposition may be used with the Gerund. Thus we 
can say, of studying, by studying, from studying, through 
studying, for studying, but not of to study, by to study, from 
to study, etc. 



72 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

The Gerund is defined as follows :- — 

A Gerund is a verbal noun in -ing, which, when 
formed from a transitive verb, can take after it an 
object. 

103. (3) Verbal Noun.— The Verbal Noun is pre- 
ceded by the and followed by of. The forms in -ing are 
Verbal Nouns in these sentences : — ' The breaking of 'stones 
is an employment of paupers ' ; ' The rising of the barometer 
indicates fine weather ' ; ' The singing of the chorister was 
rather flat : 9 in the last example we might use the inflected 
possessive and say, l The chorister 1 s singing was rather flat/ 

104. Confused Constructions. — To blend the constructions of the 
Gerund and Verbal Noun in the same expression is an error, of which 
the following sentences afford illustrations: — 'The relieving people's 
wants is a duty,' ' Reading of trashy novels does much harm.' We 
may correct the mistakes, either by treating relieving and reading 
as Verbal Nouns, — in which case we must say, 'The relieving of people's 
wants,' 'The reading of trashy novels,' — or by treating relieving and 
reading as Gerunds, in which case we must say, 'Relieving people's 
wants,' 'Reading trashy novels.' 

105. (4) Participles. — Participles are Adjectives, and 
as they are formed from Verbs, we call them Verbal Adjec- 
tives. But they differ from ordinary Adjectives just as 
Gerunds differ from ordinary Nouns. The active Parti- 
ciple of a transitive verb governs a noun in the objective 
case, just as the Gerund of a transitive verb governs a 
noun in the objective case. The Participle gets its name 
from this circumstance, that it ' participates ' in the character 
of an Adjective and in that of a Verb. Like an Adjective, 
it limits the meaning of a Noun ; like a Verb, it takes an 
object, if it is the Participle of an active transitive Verb. 

Thus, in the sentence, ' I saw the boy reading his book/ 
reading refers to l boy,' limiting the application of the name, 
and at the same time takes an object, book, just as the verb 
in its finite forms would take an object : e.g. ' He can read 
his book.' 



THE VERB INFINITE. 73 

106. The Present and the Past Participle.— 

The Participle in *ing is an active participle. It is usually 
called the Present Participle, and we shall give it this name, 
though it would be more properly termed the Imperfect or 
Incomplete Participle, as it denotes not time but unfinished 
action, — action still in progress : writing, healing. 

Our other Participle is the Perfect Participle, denoting 
action which is completed and no longer in progress. This 
is commonly called the Past Participle, and we shall employ 
the ordinary though less accurate name for it. It ends in -en, 
-n, as beat-en, show-n, or in -ed y -d, -/, as heal-ed, love-d, slep-t. 

If the verb is a transitive verb, this Participle is passive, but to give 
it the name of the Passive Participle would often be misleading, for the 
following reasons : — 

(i) The Passive Participle combined with the verb have forms 
tenses of the active verb : e.g. ' He has stolen the watch, ' ' I had eaten 
my dinner 1 .' 

(ii) We have adopted this use of have with the Past Participle of 
intransitive verbs, and we say, 'I have been,' 'I have stood,' 'I have 
dreamt,' 'I have slept,' though we cannot say, 'I am been,' *I am 
stood,' 'I am dreamt,' 'I am slept.' The Participle of intransitive verbs 
is Perfect, or Past, but it is not Passive. 

107. Confusion of Verbal Forms in -ing. — The Present Participle 
is employed, in the conjugation of our verbs, to form the tenses express- 
ing Incomplete action, as you can see by turning back to the Table of 
Nine Primary Tenses. These Imperfect Tenses are in constant use 
during daily intercourse. Much of our conversation consists of sentences 
of this kind, — ' What are you doing! ' ' Writing a letter.' ' Shall you be 
writing long?' 'Don't keep on bothering' 'But we are all waiting,' 
and so forth, — sentences in which the forms in -ing are Present Parti- 
ciples. Hence it comes to pass that beginners (and others too, who 
answer off-hand instead of taking the trouble to think first,) describe 
every word in -ing as a Present Participle. Sometimes they happen to 
be right, for Present Participles are common: but sometimes they are 
wrong, for the word in -ing may really be a Gerund or the Verbal Noun. 
Now to call a Gerund a Participle is like calling a Noun an Adjective, 
and shows either great ignorance or great carelessness. 

1 For the explanation of this construction, see The Elements of 
English Grammar (Pitt Press Series), p. 147. 



74 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

108. Conjugation of the Verb. — The collection of 
all the forms of a Verb, by which we mark its Voice, Mood, 
Tense, Number, and Person, is called its Conjugation. 

We have already seen that our supply of Inflexions is 
quite insufficient to mark many of the distinctions of voice, 
mood, and tense, which we wish to express. In conjugating 
our verbs we therefore make use of other verbs called 
Auxiliaries. The tenses formed by Inflexion alone are 
called Simple Tenses : the tenses formed by the use of 
Auxiliaries are called Compound Tenses. Read through 
the Conjugation of the Simple Tenses of the verb breaks 
and observe how scanty is the supply of forms which it 
contains. 

Verb Finite. 





Indicative. 


Subjunctive 


. Imperative. 




Present, 


Past. Present. 


Present. 


Sing* i. 


break 


broke break 




2. 


break- est 


broke-st break 


l%«-\ break 


3- 


break-s 


broke break 


PL I, 2, 3. 


break 


broke break 






Verb Infinite. 





Participles J PresenT: break-ing Infinitive: (to) break 

(Past: broke-n Gerund: break-ing 

The Conjugation of the verb break, containing the 
Compound Tenses, will be found set out in a Table on 
p. 160 of The Elements of English Grammar. 

109. Work done by the Auxiliaries. — The Auxi- 
liary Verbs are these: — be. Jyive, shall, will, may, do. Note 
the kind of service performed by each in the conjugation of 
the Verb 1 . 

Be is used (1) as a Voice auxiliary, forming with the 
Past Participle of Transitive verbs the Passive: ( I am beaten,' 
1 to be beaten ' : and (2) as a Tense Auxiliary, forming the 

1 For the detailed treatment of Auxiliary Verbs, see The Elements of 
English Grammar (Pitt Press Series), Chapter xvn. On p. 243 of 
that book a Table is given showing the uses of Shall and Will. 



THE VERB INFINITE. 75 

Imperfect Tenses in both voices : ' I am beating/ ' I am 
being beaten.' 

Notice that, with the Past Participle of certain Intransitive 
verbs, be forms the Perfect Active : ' I am come,' ' He is 
gone/ < It is fallen.' See § 83. 

Have is a Tense Auxiliary, and forms the Perfect Tenses 
both Active and Passive : ' I have beaten/ ' I have been 
beaten/ ' I had beaten/ ' I shall have been beaten.' 

Shall and will form the Future Tenses of the Indica- 
tive Mood, Active and Passive : ' I shall beat, ' He will 
be beaten/ 'They will be beating/ 'We shall have been 
beaten.' 

May and might, should and would, are used as 
signs of the Subjunctive : ' Strive that you may succeed/ 
' He strove that he might succeed/ ' I should be glad/ 'This 
would seem to be the case/ 

Do is used as an auxiliary in Negative and Interroga- 
tive sentences : ' I do not believe this/ ' Do you believe 
this?' 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Distinguish by name each of the following forms in -ing of the 
Verb Infinite: — 'In running the race he fell.' — 'I am fond of fishing.' — 
'Acting is better than talking.' — 'I saw a boy throwing a stone.' — 
'Riding is a healthy exercise.' — 'The bowling of shooters cannot be 
acquired by practice. ' — 'He was lucky in bowling several shooters.' — 
'Bowling shooters, he took three wickets.' — 'Bowling shooters is a 
matter of chance.' — 'He earns his living by writing books.' — 'The 
writing of books is his means of earning a living.' — * Writing books is 
his employment.'—' He is employed in writing books.' — ' We found him 
writing a book.' — 'We found him occupied with the writing of a book.' 

2. What is the force of the form in -ing in each of the following 
expressions? — 'a running footman,' 'a running account/ 'a writing- 
table,' 'a smoking-room,' 'the smoking flax,' ' an acting manager,' 'a 
frying-pan,' 'a crossing-sweeper,' 'a freezing reception,' 'a freezing 
mixture,' 'an eating-house,' 'a managing director/ 'a dissolving view,' 
' a laughing jackass,' 'a magnifying-glass. ' 

3. Give the Past Participle of the following verbs : — cleave, melt, 
drink, sink, roast. 

What other forms do these Participles commonly assume, when they 
are used as Adjectives? Prefix these forms respectively to the Nouns 
hoof) metal % man, ship, meat. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
Adverbs and Prepositions. 

I. Adverbs. 

110. Function of Adverbs. — Most verbs indicate 
an action. Now an action may be performed in various 
ways and in different circumstances. Take, for example, 
the action of bowling. This action, expressed by the verb 
bowl, may be done well or badly, now or yesterday, here or 
there. The words, which we attach to the verb bowl to 
mark these differences, are called Adverbs. The effect of 
attaching an Adverb to a verb is to limit the application of 
the verb. To bowl describes the action in every instance of 
bowling : to bowl badly is inapplicable to the action, when- 
ever the bowling is good or indifferent; to bowl now is 
inapplicable, when the bowling took place yesterday; to 
bowl here is inapplicable, when the bowling was performed 
somewhere else. 

Most Adjectives of Quality denote attributes which vary 
in amount. One way of indicating this variation is to 
employ degrees of comparison : another is to use Adverbs 
which express degree. Thus, we say that a thing is * rather 
good,' or ' very good ' ; ' slightly better ' or i much better.' 

Certain Adverbs also can be modified by other Adverbs. 
We can say, 'He bowled very badly/ 'He fielded rather 
well/ The adverb badly describes the manner of his bowling, 
and the adverb well the manner of his fielding. The adverbs 
very and rather indicate the extent to which the actions 
were done ' badly ' and ' well 7 respectively. 



ADVERBS AND PREPOSITIONS. 77 

Hence, we may define an Adverb in these terms : — 

An Adverb is a word which modifies the 
meaning of a verb, adjective, or other adverb. 

111. Simple and Conjunctive Adverbs. — Most 
adverbs are Simple. They contain a meaning in themselves: 
e.g. 'He thinks so now, 9 'I live here] 'We were greatly 
pleased/ 

A few however have a meaning only when they are taken 
in connexion with another clause. ' He came when] ' I 
waited while] 'They are sitting where] are meaningless 
assertions until the sentences are completed : * He came 
when I called/ ' I waited while he wrote a letter/ i They are 
sitting where we left them.' These adverbs have the force 
of conjunctions in joining clauses together. Hence they 
are called Conjunctive Adverbs. 

You remember that the Relative Pronouns have the 
power of joining two clauses and making one sentence out 
of the combination. Thus, two clauses are united by the 
Relative Pronoun, when I say, ' She knows who it is.' In 
the same way, the Conjunctive Adverb where unites two 
clauses, when I say, 'She knows where it is.' 

112. Classification of Adverbs.— We may arrange 
Adverbs in groups according to their meaning, as follows : — 

( when"? now, to-day, then, yesterday, soon, to-morrow 
I. Time 1 how long! always, ever 

( how often? twice, yearly, rarely 

where? here, near, below 
whence? hence, thence 
whither? hither, thither 
k in what order"? secondly, lastly 

3. Degree, or Quantity how much? scarcely, quite, little, exactly 

4. Manner, or Quality howl many adverbs in -ly 

5. Certainty certainly, not, perhaps 

6. Reason and Consequence why, therefore, thus 



1. Place ■ 



78 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

II. Prepositions. 

113. Prepositions mark Relations. — In the world 
around us things stand in various relations to ourselves and 
to each other. Thus, one thing moves towards another 
thing, or away from it : one thing rests on another thing, 
or under it. A thing is produced by us, or for us, or given 
to us, or taken from us, or fastened on us, or put inside us. 

Nouns (or pronouns) are the names of things. How 
are the relations in which things stand to be expressed ? 

When the nouns in a language have preserved their 
Case-endings, some, at any rate, of these relations may be 
expressed by Cases. But Cases will not suffice for all the 
relations which it may be necessary to denote, and when 
Cases fail, Prepositions come into use. The fewer the 
Cases, the more important is the part which Prepositions 
have to play. 

Suppose that we are speaking of two things called 
respectively 'a pickpocket' and 'a policeman/ and that 
we wish to make certain statements about the relations in 
which they stood to each other ; Prepositions will often be 
needed to express these relations. Not indeed in every 
instance : if the verb is a transitive verb, the place of the 
nouns in the sentence will indicate the relations between 
them. When I say, * The pickpocket assaulted the police- 
man/ you know that I describe the relations between the 
two parties as different from what would be meant if I said 
that the policeman assaulted the pickpocket. The noun 
which comes before the verb is the Subject and represents 
the doer of the act. The noun which comes after the verb 
is the Object and represents the receiver of the act. 

If, however, I state that, 'The pickpocket ran away the 
policeman/ 'The policeman rushed the pickpocket/ the 
relations are unintelligible, till I insert the Prepositions to 
mark them, and say, ' The pickpocket ran away from the 
policeman/ 'The policeman rushed after the pickpocket.' 

Now, as the actual things, policeman and pickpocket, 



ADVERBS AND PREPOSITIONS, 79 

stood in certain relations, so the nouns, which name the 
things, stand in certain relations, and these relations are 
often indicated by Prepositions. The noun, or pronoun, to 
which the Preposition is attached, is said to be l governed ' 
by the Preposition and it is in the objective case. Hence 
we may define a Preposition in the following terms : — 

A Preposition is a word which is used with a 
noun or pronoun to show its relation to some 
other word in the sentence. 

114. How to know a Preposition. — To decide 
whether a word is a Preposition or an Adverb, remember 
that a Preposition is used with a noun or its substitute and 
governs it : where there is no noun thus governed, the word 
in question is not a preposition. A few examples will make 
this clear : the following words are used as — 

Prepositions Adverbs 

He is on the roof. Put it on. 

Take it off the table. Take it off. 

He is gone down the town. He is gone down. 

It lies beyond the river. It lies beyond. 

We went along the bank. Go along. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Refer to its class each of these Adverbs : — nearly, perhaps ', con- 
tinually, there, therefore, weakly, weekly, quite, 

1. Write the Adverbs formed (1) from the Adjectives fine, able, 
merry, holy; (2) from the Nouns home, head, one, day, shore. 

3. How is the meaning of the following sentences affected by 
changing the place of the Adverb only? — 'Only Brown passed in 
French.' — 'Brown only passed in French.' — 'Brown passed only in 
French.' 

4. Make short sentences in which the following words are used, (1) 
as Adverbs, (2) as Prepositions : — up, in, over, above, after, about, before, 
through, between. 

5. Write sentences containing the following Adjectives, with the 
Preposition which is used after each :— -fond, different, inconvenient, 
worthy, dependent, independent, angry. 

6. Indicate in the same way the Prepositions which follow the Verbs 
acquit, confer, differ, wait, resolve, sympathize, protest. 



CHAPTER XV. 
Conjunctions and Interjections. 

I. Conjunctions. 

115. Conjunctions generally join Sentences. — 

Conjunctions usually connect sentences, even when they 
appear to connect only words. Thus, ' He was poor but 
honest 7 contains two statements; ' He was poor-: he was 
honest.' ' He is neither a knave nor a fool ' means ' He is 
not a knave : he is not a fool.' 

116. Conjunctions defined. — All conjunctions can 
join sentences together, but all words which join sentences 
are not conjunctions : if they were, we should have to 
include Relative Pronouns and Conjunctive Adverbs among 
Conjunctions. We may therefore give the definition of a 
Conjunction as follows : — 

A Conjunction is a word, other than a relative 
pronoun or conjunctive adverb, which joins words 
and sentences. 

117. Kinds of Sentences. — As Conjunctions are 
classified according to the kind of sentences which they 
join, we must ascertain how many kinds of sentences there 
are, before the classification can be understood. 

A Sentence is a collection of words by which we say 
something about a thing. The word which stands for the 
thing about which we make the assertion is called the 



CONJUNCTIONS AND INTERJECTIONS. 81 

Subject of the sentence. The word by which we make 
the assertion about the thing is called the Predicate. 

If a sentence contains only one subject and one finite 
verb, it is a Simple sentence : ' The general was knighted/ 
1 He told me this/ * He gave me a contribution/ are Simple 
sentences. 

If a sentence contains two or more independent clauses, 
it is a Compound sentence: 'The general was knighted 
and presented with the freedom of the city/ ' He neither 
told me this, nor did he hint it/ 'He gave me a contribution 
but he grudged it/ are Compound sentences, each of which 
contains two parts entirely independent. If these two parts 
formed separate sentences, the sense of the compound 
sentence would not be affected. 

But if a sentence contains two clauses, one of which is 
dependent on the other, it is a Complex sentence : ' The 
general who won the victory was knighted/ ' He told me 
that the prisoner had escaped, 1 ' He gave me a contribution 
because he approved of the object 1 are Complex sentences. 
The words in italics are not independent sentences : they 
occupy the place of an adjective, a noun, or an adverb, in 
relation to the rest of the sentence of which they form a 
part. Hence they are called Subordinate Clauses. 

Thus, in the sentence, ' The general who won the victory 
was knighted/ the clause ( who won the victory 1 is equivalent 
to victorious and limits the application of the noun ' general/ 
It is an Adjectival clause. 

In the sentence, ' He told me that the prisoner had 
escaped/ the clause ''that the prisoner had escaped 1 occupies 
the same position as might be occupied by such words as 
'the fact/ or 'the rumour/ The fact, or the rumour, is a 
noun. Hence the clause, as it takes the place of a noun, is 
a Noun clause. 

In the sentence, 'He gave me a contribution because 
he approved of the object/ the clause ' because he approved of 
the object ' modifies the application of the verb gave, stating 
why he gave it. The words by which we limit the applica- 

W. G. B. 6 



82 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

tion of verbs are adverbs : * He gave rae a contribution 
approvingly] would express pretty much the same thing as 
' He gave me a contribution because he approved of the 
object. ' Such a clause as this, since it takes the place of an 
adverb, is an Adverbial clause. 

The sentences which form parts of an entire sentence 
we shall call Clauses. ' The general won the victory and 
was knighted' is a Compound sentence consisting of the 
two co-ordinate or independent clauses : ' The general won 
the victory,' 'The general was knighted.' 'The general 
who won the victory was knighted ' is a Complex sentence 
consisting of a principal clause, ' The general was knighted/ 
and a subordinate adjectival clause, 'who won the victory/ 
referring to ' general ' in the principal clause. ' The general 
was knighted because he won the victory' is a Complex 
sentence consisting of a principal clause, 'The general was 
knighted,' and a subordinate adverbial clause, 'because he 
won the victory/ modifying 'was knighted.' 

There is no way of deciding whether a subordinate clause is an 
Adjective- clause, a Noun-clause, or an Adverbial-clause, except by using 
your wits to discover its relation to the Principal clause. See whether 
it serves the purpose of an Adjective, a Noun, or an Adverb. Exactly 
the same expression may be employed in different ways in different 
circumstances. Take, for example, the words where the battle was 
fought, and observe their various uses in the following sentences :— 

i. 'The spot where-t he-battle-was -fought is unknown.' 

2. * Where-the-battle-was-fought is unknown.' 

3. 'I live where-the-battle-was-fought? 

In (1), where-the-battle-was-fought is Adjectival, limiting 'spot'; in 
like manner we might say, 'The exact spot is unknown.' 

In (2), it is a Noun-clause; in like manner we might say, 'The spot 
is unknown,' 'The fact is unknown,' l /t is unknown.' 

In (3), it is Adverbial, modifying the verb 'live,' just as an adverb 
would modify it in the sentence 'I live there/ 

118. Conjunctions are Co-ordinating or Sub- 
ordinating. — When you have thoroughly mastered the 
distinction between Compound and Complex sentences, 
and can determine what kind of Subordinate Clause it is 



CONJUNCTIONS AND INTERJECTIONS. 83 

that any Complex sentence contains, you will find the 
Analysis of Sentences an easy undertaking. At present, 
however, we are occupied, not with the Analysis of 
Sentences, but with Conjunctions, and to Conjunctions 
we will now return. 

Conjunctions are of two kinds, and are called Co- 
ordinating or Subordinating. 

(1) Co-ordinating Conjunctions join co-ordinate or 
independent clauses: e.g. and, but, either... or, neither... 
nor. 

(2) Subordinating Conjunctions introduce a depen- 
dent clause : e.g. that, after, till, because, though, if. 

119. Kinds of Subordinate Clauses. — The sub- 
ordinate clauses which a subordinating conjunction introduces 
are Noun-clauses or Adverbial clauses. Adjective-clauses 
are attached to the principal clause by a relative pronoun 
or by a relative adverb ; as, ' The general who won the 
victory was knighted/ which is equivalent to 'The victorious 
general was knighted ' ; * The house whe7-e nobody lives is to 
be pulled down/ which is equivalent to ' The empty house is 
to be pulled down.' Noun-clauses are generally introduced 
by that, and occur especially after verbs of saying, thinking, 
believing, asking, hoping, seeing, and others of similar 
import : * I say that he did it,' ' I think that this is so.' But 
that is not essential to a Noun-clause : thus the following 
clauses in italics are Noun-clauses ; ' I see how you did it,' 
1 When he did it is not clear/ The words how and when 
are adverbs, but they are used here with the force of 
Subordinating Conjunctions to introduce dependent clauses. 

Adverbial clauses occur in the following sentences : ' I 
will go, if you like' \ ' He came, though he was not invited' \ 
i I went out as you came in' \ * He worked so hard that he 
fell ill' \ 'Strive that you may succeed' ; 'He succeeded 
because he worked steadily.'' 

6—2 



84 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

II. Interjections. 

120. Interjections. — We may define an Interjection 
as a sound which expresses an emotion but does not enter 
into the construction of the sentence. 

As Interjections have no connexion with the gram- 
matical structure of the sentence, there is a very little that 
we need say about them. Such Interjections as Oh! ah! 
pooh I are mere noises, not words. Others are contracted 
forms of expression : so, adieu is ' to God (I commend 
you)/ goodbye is * God be with you.' 

QUESTIONS. 

i . Distinguish as Adverb, Preposition, or Conjunction, each of the 
italicised words in the following sentences: — 'All were drowned but 
one.' — 'Four were drowned, but one swam to land.' — 'The boat upset 
and but one reached the shore.' — 'He came in after viz had finished 
dinner.' — 'He came in a cab after dinner.' — 'He dined first and came 
in after? — 'I shall vote for \i\m.,for I believe he is honest.' 

2. Conjunctions which are used in pairs, (as, e.g., either. ..or), are 
called Correlatives. Make sentences to illustrate the use of the follow- 
ing Correlatives : — whether. . .or, neither. . . nor, so. . .as, as. . .so, so. . .that. 

3. Describe each of the following Subordinate Clauses as a Noun 
Clause, an Adjective Clause, or an Adverbial Clause, and show that, 
consistently with your answer, a Noun, an Adjective, or an Adverb, 
might be used in its place : — ' We must go below when the boat starts? 
— 'I don't know when the boat starts? — 'The hour when the boat starts 
varies with the tide.' — 'The boy who won was under fourteen.' — 'He 
asked who won? — 'I thought that he would win? — ' The evil that men do 
lives after them.' — r'This is the spot where he fell? — '1 sec where he 

fell? — 'lie broke his leg where he fell. 1 — 'I will come if I can. 1 



CHAPTER XVL 

WORD-BUILDIXG. 

121. Compounds and Derivatives. — Most of the 
words in our vocabulary have been built up from others, 
either by joining two words together, or by adding to a 
word a sound which by itself is without meaning. Thus, 
by joining the words free, kind, foot, to the word man, 
we have made free-man, man-kind, foot-man : by adding to 
man the syllables -ly and nn-, which have no meaning when 
they stand alone, we have made man-ly, un-man. Words 
formed by the first process are called Compounds : words 
formed by the second process are called Derivatives. 

A Compound is a word made by joining other words. 

A Derivative is a word made (i) by adding a sound 
not significant by itself, or (2) by modifying an existing 
sound. 

122. Prefixes and Suffixes. — The part not signifi- 
cant by itself, when attached at the beginning of a word, 
is called a Prefix ; when attached at the end, a Suffix. 

Derivatives are generally formed by means of Prefixes 
or Suffixes : a few however are formed by the change of an 
existing sound, without the addition of a new sound. Thus 
from glass we get glaze; from sit, set; from gold, gild. In 
these cases we have modification but not addition. 

Prefixes and Suffixes once possessed a meaning and 
existed as separate words. Thus the ending -ly represents 
the word like: godlike and godly contain elements originally 
the same, but godlike is now described as a compound, and 
godly as a derivative. 



86 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

123. Hybrids. — If a Compound or a Derivative " contains parts 
which are borrowed from different languages, it is called a Hybrid. 
Thus, bi-cycle is a hybrid, because bi(s) is Latin and the remainder is 
Greek. Journal-ist combines Latin and Greek ; mon-ocular, Greek and 
Latin ; shepherd-ess, English and French ; grand-father, French and 
English ; false-hood y Latin and English ; unfortunate, English and 
Latin. 

124. Meaning of Compounds. — In Compound 
words, the first word usually modifies the meaning of 
the second. A ring-finger is a particular kind of finger; 
a finger-ring, a particular kind of ring. In true grammatical 
compounds there is usually a change of form or of accent. 
So spoonful is a true grammatical compound of spoon full 

125. Suffixes. — A few of the more important Suffixes 
are given here for the purpose of illustration. They are 
distinguished according to (i) their force, (2) their origin. 
Not only suffixes which are taken from Latin, but also those 
which have been derived from the Romance languages, 
(e.g. French, Italian), are described as of Classical origin. 

Noun Suffixes. 
Diminutives : 

(a) Of English origin : maid-en, cock-e-rel, kern-*/, lass-** or 
bab-^, farth-z«£ (small fourth part), duck-/-z«g, lamb-/£/#, thimb-/*, 
hill-0*£. 

(b) Of Classical origin : glob-«/*, animal -cule, parti-*/*, mors-*/, 
violon- **//<?, vermi-**///, rivu-/*/, lane-*/, cigar-*//*. 

Notice that some of the latter group are not English formations : the 
words are diminutives in the foreign language from which we borrowed 
them, but they are not English diminutives any more than testatrix is 
an English feminine. 

Diminutives occasionally express not smallness but (1) endearment, 
darling, Charlie, or (2) contempt, hireling, worldling. 

Augmentatives express the opposite idea to that expressed by 
Diminutives : 

Classical: Arvrik-ard, wiz-ard: (this ending was introduced from 
Old French). Also bsdl-oon (a big ball), tromb-one (a big trumpet), 
m\\\i-on (a big thousand). 



WORD-B UILDING. 87 

Agent : 

(a) English: law-j^r, gardeiwr, sail-0/-, \i-ar* 

(b) Classical : act-<?r, bombard-zVr, engin-^r, secret-ary, journal-/^ 
(Greek). 

Marking feminine gender: 

(a) English: spinster, vix-en. 

(b) Classical : govern-^*, testatr-/#, hero-w* (Greek). 

Act, state, quality, are denoted by many suffixes : 

(a) English: free-dom, brother-^^, god-head, daxk-ness, friend- 
ship, tru-tky gif-/. 

(b) Classical: bond-age, infamy, m&txi-mony, ]ust-ue, opin-ion, 
forti-/W<?, liber-^/, cult-ure. 

Adjective Suffixes. 
Possessing a quality : 

(a) English: wretchW, quarrel -Jtf#z*, god-fy, wood-eyi, thirst-^. 

(b) Classical: leg-c?/, mmid-ane, lun-^r, div-ine> tixn-id, sens-ib/e, 
frag-z/k. 

Possessing a quality (i) in a high degree : 
(a) English: coxe-ful. (b) Classical: verb-ose, glori-oits; 
and (ii) in a low degree : (a) English : black-ish. 

Verb Suffixes. 
Causative : 

(a) English: sweet-^/i. 

(b) Classical: magni^ {Latin facto). 

Other verbal suffixes, derived from a Latin source, are seen in 
floui-is/i (Latin jloresco), facilitate. The common ending -ize % or -ise, 
is of Greek origin : critic-/^, theor-w*. 

Frequentative : 

(a) English : bdX-t-er (from beat), crack-/* (from crack). 

126. Prefixes. — The following are a few of the prin- 
cipal Prefixes, classified as English, Latin, or Greek, according 
to their origin. 

English : 

a-, usual meaning 'on'; tf-live, 0-board. 

be-, from preposition 'by': (i) changes the meaning of a transitive 
verb, fo-hold, &?-set : (ii) converts an intransitive to a transitive, fo-moan, 
fo-wail : (iii) has an intensive force, fo-daub, ^-praise. 



88 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

for-, not the preposition 'for': (i) intensive force, for-give : (ii) pri- 
vative, for -get, forswear. Notice that fore-go ('to go without '), fore- 
do, should befor-go,for-do: the verby^-go means 'to go before.' 

fore-, as in * before' : fore-tell, fore-see. 

mis-, with sense of 'a-miss': mis-deed, mis-take. 

un-, (i) meaning 'not': un-wise f un-belief: (ii) marking the reversal 
of an action : un-fasten, un-wind. 

with-, meaning 'against': withstand, with-draw. 

Latin : 

a-, ab-, abs-, 'from': a-vert, abrupt, abs-tain. 

ad-, 'to': a^-jective ; variously modified, e.g. ac-cuse, 0^-gravate, 
al-\y, ap-pear, assize, aMain, a- vow. 

ante-, 'before,' ante-chamber. 

bi-, bis-, 'twice,' bi-ped, for-cuit. 

contra-, 'against,' contra-diet, counter-march. 

in-, (i) 'in': in-iw.se, im-pel, en-rol: (ii) 'not': ///-sensible, im- 
possible, ?>-responsible . 

minus-, 'mis-chief,' with meaning of English prefix mis-, but of 
different origin. 

non-, 'not': w^^-conformity. 

per-, 'through': persecute, piii-sne, per -yxre (compare ybr-swear'). 

re-, 'again,' 'back': re-cur, return. 

super-, 'over': super -x\ne, sur-vive, sir-loin, 

vice-, 'instead of : vice-roy, vis-count. 

Greek : 

an-, a-, 'not': an-archy, a-theist. 
ana-, 'again,' 'back': ana-logy, ana-lyse. 

anti-, 'against': anti-pathy, ant-agonist. In anti-cipate however 
we have Latin ante. 

archi-, 'chief; tf;r^*-tect, ^r^-type, #/r//-bishop. 

auto-, 'self: auto- biography, auto-maton. 

ek-, ex-, 'out of: ec-log\xe, *r-odus. 

eu-, 'well': eulogy, ev-ange\\cal. 

hyper-, 'beyond': hypei'-bo\\ca\. 

meta-, 'change': meta-phor. 

mono-, ' single ' : mono-poly, mon-arch. 

pan-, panto-, 'all' : pan-acea, panto-mime, 

para-, 'beside': para -graph. 

syn-, 'with': syn-od, syl-lable, sym-bol. 

127. Division of Words into Syllables. — A 

Syllable consists of a single vowel-sound with or without 
accompanying consonants. Through is a single syllable, 



WORD-B UILDING. 89 

though it contains seven letters: ideality with eight letters 
has five syllables. In through there is one vowel sound; 
in ideality there are five distinct vowel-sounds, with three 
consonants dispersed amongst them. 

There are no hard and fast rules for the division of words 
into syllables, when a division is necessary in writing. As 
far as possible we ought to follow (1) the etymology, (2) the 
pronunciation. 

Hence the hyphen is placed between the prefix or suffix 
and the root of derivatives, e.g. en-la?ge, man-ly, and between 
the constituent parts of compounds : e.g. ink-stand, free-man. 



QUESTIONS. 

1. In each of the following words point out the suffix and explain 
its force : — lambkin, peaceful, brighten, maiden, joyous, streamlet, coldish, 
darkness, reader, spinster. 

Give other examples of words which contain the same endings. 

1. What is the force of the prefix in each of the following words? 
— contradict, dissimilar, suspend, congregation, submarine, forewarn, 
antidote, antecedent, unbelief, superstructure. 

Mention similar formations. 

3. Form verbs by attaching syllables to the following words :• — 
ptire, crystal, black, clean, assassin, chat, spark. 

4. Reverse the meaning of each of the following words by adding 
a prefix : — proper, similar, reverent, sense, holy, audible, fortunate. 

5. Attach to each of the following words a prefix or a suffix, and 
state what change in the meaning of the word has been brought about 
by the addition \—just, faith, friend, wise, hard, joy, solid, honour, 
man, wood. 

6. What force has each of the following affixes ? — circum-, per-, 
mi-, mis-, ante-, anti-, -tude, fy, -ion, -dom. 

Give examples. 

7. Mention words which contain the prefixes ad-, in-, ob- f modified 
in form. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
Syntax. 

128. The Province of Syntax. — Syntax deals with 
the relations of words, when they are arranged so as to form 
sentences. Most of these relations come under the heads 
of Concord and Government. By Concord, we mean 
the agreement of two or more connected words, as regards 
their gender, number, case, or person. By Government, we 
mean the influence exercised by another word upon the 
case of a noun or pronoun: thus a transitive verb, or a 
preposition, is said to i govern ' a noun. Owing to the 
scanty supply of inflexions in modern English, the relation 
of a word to other words in the sentence is often indicated 
by its position. Hence we may say that syntax has to do 
with the Order or arrangement of words, as well as with 
their Concord and Government. Thus, — 

Syntax deals with the combination of words 
in sentences, their government, agreement, and 
order. 

We shall deal briefly with the Syntax of the different 
Parts of Speech in succession, beginning with the Noun. 

I. Nouns. 

129. Uses of Cases.— Our remarks on the Syntax of 
Nouns may be grouped most conveniently under the 
different cases. 



SYNTAX. 91 

Nominative Case. 
The Nominative case is used — 

(1) When a noun stands as the Subject of a sentence, whether the 
verb of which it is the subject be active or passive : ' He works,' ' I have 
been wounded. ' 

(2) As a Vocative, or Nominative of Address. 

(3) To complete the predicate after intransitive verbs of incom- 
plete predication ; such as, to be, become, continue, seem, feel: 'I continued 
secretary,' 'He seemed and felt a hero,' 

(4) With certain transitive verbs in the passive to complete the 
meaning: 'He was made secretary,' 'I was appointed treasurer,' 'You 
were called John. ' Such transitive verbs are called factitive verbs. 

(5) When the noun or pronoun, combined with a participle, is in 
the absolute construction. Thus, ' The door being open, the steed was 
stolen. ' 

(Absolutus means in Latin 'set free' or 'untied': an absolute phrase 
can be detached without affecting the construction of the sentence. ) 

130. Participles in Absolute Constructions. — Be careful to avoid 
the blunder which is often made when a participle is used in a con- 
struction which is meant to be absolute. To say, 'Travelling down the 
line, the castle is visible,' is absurd. For who is travelling? According 
to the sentence, the castle is travelling, for 'the castle' is the only noun 
to which the participle 'travelling' can refer. Hence, the statement in 
this form would mean, 'The castle travelling down the line is visible.' 

Take another illustration. ' Being conductor of the orchestra, mem- 
bers of the band followed the hearse.' 'Being conductor' can refer 
grammatically to no word except 'members.' But members of the band 
were not conductor of the orchestra. Say therefore, 'He having been 
conductor of the orchestra, members of the band followed the hearse, ' — 
in which form of expression 'he having been conductor' is a Nominative 
Absolute, — or say, 'As he had been conductor, members of the band 
followed the hearse.' 

When a faulty sentence is set for correction, as a grammatical exer- 
cise, avoid changing the construction more than is necessary for the 
removal of the error. By casting the sentence in an entirely different 
form, you raise a suspicion that you have not seen exactly where the 
blunder comes in, whereas an alteration, confined to the word which is 
wrong, shows that you have detected the weak place. 

131. Order. — The subject precedes the verb, as a 
general rule, but comes after it — 

i. in questions: 'Did you say so?' 
ii. in commands: 'See thou to that.' 



92 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

iii. in certain uses of the subjunctive mood: 'Were he here, you 
would not say this, ' ' May you prosper ! ' 

iv. in the phrases, 'said 1/ 'quoth he,' 'answered he,' etc. 

v. in a sentence which is introduced by there, as ' There are some 
who deny this.' 

Possessive Case. 

132. Nouns in the Possessive Case have the 
force of Adjectives. — Possession is only one of the rela- 
tions indicated by nouns in the Possessive case: ' John's 
hat' means 'the hat possessed by John'; 'the master's 
cane' means 'the cane possessed by the master.' But 
' Byron's poems ' does not mean ' the poems possessed by 
Byron ' ; ' Cade's insurrection ' does not mean ' the insur- 
rection possessed by Cade'; 'an hour's detention' does 
not mean ' the detention possessed by an hour.' The term 
possessive is therefore inadequate as a description of the 
functions performed by this case. 

What feature is common to all these uses of the so- 
called possessive case? The common feature is this: the 
noun in the possessive has the limiting force of an adjective. 
Just as ' John's hat ' is a particular kind of hat, so ' Byron's 
poems' are a particular kind of poems, ' Cade's insurrection' 
is a particular kind of insurrection, and ' an hour's detention' 
a particular kind of detention. 

133. Ellipsis with the Possessive. — How are we to explain such 
expressions as 'a novel of Scott's,' 'a play of Shakespeare's'? 

They are not pleonastic, that is to say, they do not contain any 
redundancy, or excess, of expression. On the contrary they are elliptical, 
a noun being left out, on which the noun in the possessive case depends. 
The complete expression would be 'a novel of Scott's novels,' 'a play of 
Shakespeare's plays.'' Hence we cannot properly say 'a father of John's,' 
though we can say 'a brother of John's,' for 'a father of John's fathers' 
would be absurd. 

There are other ellipses, or omissions, of the noun which ought to 
follow the noun in the possessive case, and these we have to supply 
according to the sense required by the context. 'He goes to St Paul's' 
may signify in different connexions 'St Paul's cathedral,' 'St Paul's 
school,' or 'St Paul's station.' 'A picture of Agnew's' and 'a picture 



SYNTAX. 93 

of Gainsborough's' alike require the word 'pictures' to supply the 
ellipsis, but in the former case the meaning is 'belonging to Agnew,' in 
the latter, 'painted by Gainsborough. ' 

134. Order. — The inflected possessive always stands 
before the noun on which it depends ; ' the master's praise,' 
'the master's cane.' The preposition of and its noun in 
the objective usually come after the governing noun; 'the 
praise of the master/ 'the cane of the master.' But for 
emphasis we sometimes invert the order : ' Of illustrious men, 
all the earth is the sepulchre.' 

Objective Case, 

135. Direct and Indirect Object. — The Objective 
is the case both of the Direct and of the Indirect object. 
The following are its chief uses. 

The Objective is the case — 
(i) of the Direct object of a transitive verb: 'Brutus killed him.' 

(2) of the Factitive object: 'They made him consul? 'He called her 
Mary,' 'We thought him a lunatic* 

(3) of the Cognate object: 'I dreamt a dream.* 

(4) of a Noun used as the Adverbial adjunct of the Predicate, mark- 
ing limitations as regards time, space, or degree: 'We stayed a year? 
'The ditch is three yards wide,' 'This is worth half-a-crown? 

(5) of Nouns and Pronouns governed by Prepositions: 'Drink to 
me only with thine eyes.' 

(6) of the Indirect object: the noun in this case stands for the thing 
to or on behalf of which the thing is done. The verb 'to give' may be 
taken as the type of verbs which are followed by an indirect object : 
'Give me (indir. obj.) the book' (dir. obj.). 

(7) of the Pronoun in the two surviving Impersonals, methinks, 
meseems. 

(8) after the Adjectives like, worthy and near\ 'like me,' 'worth him 
and her together,' 'near us. 1 

136. Order. — The noun in the objective case usually 
follows the verb or the preposition by which it is governed- 
But this order is changed — 

(1) If the word in the objective case is a relative or interrogative 



94 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

pronoun : ' The book which you gave me, ' ' Which book did you give 
me?' 

(2) If that is used as a relative and governed by a preposition. In 
this case the preposition comes at the end of the sentence : * Here is the 
book that you told me of. ' 

(3) For emphasis: 'Silver and gold have I none.' 



II. Adjectives. 

137. Concord. — Inflexions marking Gender and Case 
have disappeared entirely from English adjectives; and the 
demonstratives this and that are the only adjectives which 
admit of the inflexion of Number. Hence we speak of the 
adjective as l limiting ' the noun to which it refers, rather 
than as 'agreeing' with it. The term ' agreement 7 suggests 
inflexion. 

Although collective nouns in the singular are often 
followed by verbs in the plural, they cannot be preceded by 
these or those. Avoid saying, ' I don't like these sort of 
things ' : say, 1 1 don't like things of this sort 1 

138. Construction of Distributives. — Each, every, 
either, neither, are Distributives, and their construction is 
therefore singular. Hence the following sentence is wrong : 
'Each of the sailors answered in their turn.' Say either 
(1) ' Each of the sailors answered in his turn,' or (2) ' All 
the sailors answered in their turns.' 

139. Errors in Comparison.— The following mis- 
takes are of common occurrence :■ — 

1. Use of the superlative when fewer than three things are com- 
pared: — * Which is the cleverest of the two brothers?' 

2. Use of the comparative when more than two things are com- 
pared : — ' Of the many forms of sport, golf is much the more attractive 
to players past their prime. * 

3. Omission of other with the comparative: — * Jacob loved Joseph 
more than any of his children.' But Joseph was one of Jacob's 
children. 



SYNTAX. 95 

4. Insertion of other with the superlative: — 'Jacob loved Joseph 
most of all his other children.' But 'his other children' means all the 
children except Joseph: how then could Joseph be one of the other 
children? If Smith is the biggest boy in the class, he is bigger than 
any of the other boys, but not the biggest of the other boys, for he is not 
one of the other boys at all. 

5. Comparison drawn between things unsuited for comparison: — 
'The pond is deeper than last week.' How can a pond be compared 
with a week? 

6. Pleonasm, or excess of expression: — 'more better,' 'more per- 
fect,' 'most straitest,' 'most universal.' 

140. The Articles. — The uses of the so-called De- 
finite and Indefinite Articles .are given on pp. 40-1, § 56. 

In some instances, the insertion or omission of a or the affects the 
sense. Thus, 'a black and a white horse' means two horses, one black, 
the other white; 'a black and white horse' means one piebald horse. 
'The secretary and the treasurer' means two officials; 'the secretary 
and treasurer ' means one man who holds both offices. But when 
it is impossible for any misunderstanding to arise, we may in the 
plural repeat the article with the singular noun, or use it only once 
with the plural noun. So we may say, ' the Old and the New Testa- 
ment,' or 'the Old and New Testaments'; for eveiybody knows that a 
Testament cannot at the same time be old and new. But as a horse 
may at the same time be black and white, the sense might be doubtful, 
if we spoke of 'the black and white horses.' 

141. Government. — The adjectives like, worth, and 
near, govern an objective case: 'I met a man like him,' 
1 He is worth us two/ ' The boy near me made a disturbance.' 
Like is used also as an adverb ; ' Like as a father pitieth his 
children/ meaning 'in like manner as.' But like should 
never be used as a conjunction, followed by a nominative 
case and a finite verb. To say, ' He need not have spoken 
like he did/ or 'Why didn't you come like you promised?' is 
indeed terrible. As is the word required. 

142. Order. — The Adjective usually precedes the 
Noun, but is put after it sometimes in poetry, or for em- 
phasis: e.g. 'tempests fierce' instead of ' fierce tempests.' 



96 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

III. Pronouns. 

143. Concord. — In so far as Pronouns possess in- 
flexions, they may be said to agree with the Nouns, for which 
they stand, in Gender, Number, and Person. Their Case is 
regulated by their relation to their own clause. Thus we 
say, 'Your sister borrowed my dictionary yesterday; I met 
her this morning, and she gave it back to me:' 'Let us 
divide the books; you take these and I will keep those! 

The anticipatory It is used, however, of masculine and 
of feminine nouns, and of nouns both singular and plural : 
'It is the prince and princess.' You, the pronoun of 
ordinary address, though applied to single individuals, is 
followed by a verb in the plural : ' You are old, father 
William.' 

144. Concord of the Relative Pronoun in Number 
and Person. — Who is used only of persons, which (in 
modern English) of other animals and inanimate things. 
That is used in reference to antecedents of all kinds. The 
concord of the relative with the antecedent in Number and 
Person can be seen only in the inflexion of the verb which 
agrees with the relative. Thus, in the following sentences— 
' I, who am here, see this,' 
' Thou, who art here, seest this/ 
'He, who is here, sees this/ 
' We, you, they, who are here, see this/ 
the change in the Person or Number of the relative who 
is shown by the change in the verb which agrees with it. Am, 
art, is, are not in agreement with I, thou, he; they are 
in agreement with who. I, thou, he, are nominatives to see, 
seest, sees, respectively : who is the nominative to am, art, is, 
and the Person of who is determined according as it refers 
to 7", thou, or he. 

145. Examples of False Concord. — The following sentences illus- 
trate false Concords (1) of Number, (2) of Person, in the construction of 
the Relative Pronoun and its Verb. 



SYNTAX. 9? 

(i) 'This is one of the most useful books that has yet appeared.' 
Has should be have. Why? Because its subject that refers to an 
antecedent books, and books is plural. But the relative agrees with its 
antecedent in Number ; therefore that is plural : therefore the verb, of 
which that is subject, must be plural. 

(2) 'Thou art he who hast commanded us.' Hast should be has. 
Why? Because the relative agrees with its antecedent in Person. W T hat 
is the antecedent of who? He, and he is the pronoun of the Third 
Person. Give the reason for the correction in this form : — Who is here 
of the 3rd person, because it refers to an antecedent he\ but who is 
subject of the verb in its own clause ; therefore has must be in the 3rd 
person to agree with who, 

146. Case of the Relative.— The Case of the 
Relative is determined by its construction in its own clause. 
Thus, in the following sentences, the antecedent man is 
in the nominative case, but the case of the relative varies 
according to the requirements of the clause in which it 
occurs : — 

who lost his money/ 
'This is the man - whose money was lost.' 
whom they robbed/ 

147. Examples of Wrong Case. — Errors in the case of the Relative 
or the Interrogative Pronoun are seen in the following sentences : — 

(1) 'He picked up the man who he had knocked down.' Who 
should be whom, object of knocked down. 

(2) 'Who did you ask to come?' 'Who did you see there?' It is 
impossible, on grammatical principles, to justify expressions of this sort, 
though they are constantly employed in eonversation. You can see at 
once that whom is the proper case, by throwing the sentences into the 
shape of assertions : 'You asked him (not he) to come,' 'You saw him 
(not he) there.' 

(3) 'Who do you think he is?' This sentence illustrates another 
common form of expression. It combines two constructions, which are 
right separately, but wrong when blended. We may say, ' Who is he, 
do you think?' where 'Do you think?' is added as a parenthesis ; or we 
may say, *W 7 hom do you think him to be?' 



W. G. B. 



98 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

IV. Verbs. 

148. Concord. — The Verb agrees with its Subject in 
Number and Person. Thus we say * He is/ * They are/ 
1 Men work/ not 'He are/ ' They is/ 'Men works.' 

Observe that — 

i. Collective nouns in the singular may be followed by a verb in 
the singular or plural, according as we are thinking of the aggregate, or 
of the individuals composing it. We may say, 'The Committee were 
divided in opinion/ or 'The Committee was unanimous.' 

2. Several nouns, which are plural in form, are usually construed as 
singular, since their meaning is collective and singular : thus, ' The news 
is true.' Other examples are given on p. 30, § 44, (3). 

The same explanation applies to our employment of a singular verb 
with a plural noun which forms the title of a book : the book is singular 
though the title is plural. We say, therefore, ' Gulliver's Travels has 
been edited afresh/ 'Macaulay's Biographies is a reprint. 1 

3. Two or more nouns in the singular, joined by and, require a verb 
in the plural, unless the nouns are names of the same thing, in which 
case the verb is singular : so we say, ' The secretary and treasurer has 
absconded/ when one man holds the two offices. And on similar 
grounds, when the different nouns together express one idea, the verb 
may be in the singular : * Two and two is four, ' ' The hue and cry was 
raised.' 

4. When a noun in the singular number is joined to a second noun 
by with, or as well as, or in addition to, the verb is singular. Say, 
'The minister with his secretaries' (or, 'in addition to his secretaries,' 
or, 'as well as his secretaries') ''was present,' not 'were present.' 

5. Nouns in the singular, joined by or or nor, require a verb in the 
singular : the force of these conjunctions is to present the subjects as 
alternatives, not jointly. 

Hence the following are wrong : — 

'Nor want nor cold his course delay.' Say 'delays.' 
'Death or exile were the penalties usually imposed.' Say 'was the 
penalty usually imposed.' 

6. If or or nor connects two Pronouns of different persons, per- 
haps the safest rule would be to make the verb agree with the pronoun 
which immediately precedes it. Which of the three following forms of 
expression would you employ ? — 



SYNTAX. 99 

(i) * Either he or I art going,' 

(2) ■ Either he or I am going,' 

(3) * Either he or I is going.' 

You should certainly not say are, for as or indicates that the subjects 
are to be taken separately, the verb must at any rate be singular. If 
you say am, the verb agrees with the subject /, but not with the subject 
he : if you say is, it agrees with he, but not with /. Avoid the difficulty 
by saying, * Either he is going or I am.' 

149. Government. — The Direct Object and the In- 
direct Object are dealt with on pp. 36 , 93 ; the Retained 
Object in the Passive construction with verbs which take a 
Direct and an Indirect Object on p. 59 ; the Factitive Object 
on p. 93 ; and the Cognate Object on p. 53. 

150. Moods. — The uses of the Moods are set out on 
pp. 59, 60. The constructions of the different parts of the 
Verb Infinite, Noun and Adjective, are given on pp. 70-3. 

151. Sequence of Tenses. — What is the rule for 
the Sequence of Tenses, when a Subordinate sentence 
follows a Principal sentence? 

Primary Tenses follow Primary, and Historic Tenses 
follow Historic. 

Principal Clause Subordinate Clause 

£ resent \ are followed by [ ^ resent °J J uture Indica ^e, or 
future ) J ( Present Subjunctive. 

Past is followed by Past. 

Primary followed by Primary. 

Examples : — He says that he is working hard. 
He says that he will work hard. 
He works hard so that he may pass. 
He has worked hard so that he may pass. 
He will tell you that he is working hard. 
He will tell you that he will work hard. 
He will work hard so that he may pass. 

7—2 



ioc ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

Pest followed by Past, 

He said that he would come. 
He hoped that he might pass. 
He could do it if he liked. 
He had said that he would do it. 

152. Reported Speech. — In reproducing the precise 
words used by a speaker, we quote his speech directly. But 
if we introduce his remarks with 'He said that/ or an 
equivalent expression, it is necessary to alter the pronouns 
and tenses, and the speech is then reported indirectly, or 
in ( oblique narrative.' There is no particular difficulty in 
turning a speech into Indirect Narrative as a school exercise, 
for the conversion is one which you perform, and perform 
correctly, every day of your life. 

Let us take a simple illustration. Brown, captain of the Eleven, 
asks the head-master whether the team may have a holiday for a cricket- 
match. The master says, 1 1 am not sure that I shall be able to give it 
you.' Brown goes off to the Eleven and reports the master's answer in 
these terms : * He says he isn't sure that he will be able to give it us, ' 
or, * He said he wasn't sure that he would be able to give it us.' Jones, 
a small boy who is not in the Eleven, carries the result of the conversa- 
tion to other small boys not in the Eleven, and reports the master's 
answer as follows : * He says he isn't sure that he will be able to give it 
them,' or, 'He said he wasn't sure that he would be able to give it 
them.' The only difference between the Reported Narratives of Brown 
and Jones appears in the Pronouns ; Brown, as a member of the team, 
says us, while Jones, as an outsider, says them. 

Thus far it is all pretty plain sailing. When Commands have to be 
thrown into the Indirect form, the conversion is a little more difficult, 
because the process is less familiar. You will understand why this is 
the case, after considering the next example. 

Let us suppose that when Brown asks for a holiday, the master gives 
the reply which you will find printed at the top of the left-hand 
column in the following table. A week later, three reports are made 
of the master's speech, all in the past tense, as the incident is over and 
done with. 

(a) The Master reports his own words at a Masters' meeting. 

(b) Brown reports them to his father. 

(c) Brown's father reports them at his Club. 
Notice the differences in the versions. 



SYNTAX. 



101 



Master's original speech. 


Master reports himself. 


What makes you think that 
/ shall give you a holiday now ? 
Fix your minds on your work. 
If one of you gets a scholarship, 
/ will talk about holidays. 


(I asked) What made them 
think that / should give them a 
holiday then! (I said) Let them 
fix their minds on their work. 
If one of them got a scholarship, 
I would talk about holidays. 


Brown junior reports Master. 


Brown senior reports Master. 


(The master said) What made 
us think that he would give us 
a holiday then ? We were to fix 
our minds on our work. If one 
of us got a scholarship, he would 
talk about holidays. 


(The master said) What made 
them think that he would give 
them a holiday then! Let them 
fix their minds on their work. 
If one of them got a scholarship, 
he would talk about holidays. 



If the reports were introduced by a verb in the present tense, He 
says, instead of being introduced by a verb in the past, He said, the 
tenses would be changed throughout, but the pronouns would not be 
affected. When no directions are given to the contrary, a passage for 
conversion to Indirect Narrative is supposed to be introduced by a 
verb in the past tense, (He said), and the reporter is supposed not to 
form one of the persons addressed. 

We remarked that the conversion of Commands might be found 
rather troublesome. Brown junior, in reporting the master, would pro- 
bably break away from the Indirect form at the second sentence, and 
have recourse to Direct quotation, — '"Fix your minds on your work," 
says he.' It is possible however that he might use the expression which 
we have put into his mouth, and say, 'We were to fix,' or 'We ought 
to fix,' or 'We must fix.' The 'Let them fix' of Mr Brown senior's 
report is too stately for anything beneath the dignity of a parliamentary 
oration. 



V. Adverbs, Conjunctions, and Prepositions. 

153. How to know a Preposition. — There are 
some words which are variously used as Prepositions, as 
Adverbs, and as Conjunctions. The following sentences 
illustrate this threefold use of but, before, since. 



io2 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

Prepositions. Adverbs. Conjunctions. 

I saw nobody but I have but one. I saw him but not 

him. you. 

He left before sun- He went before. He went before 

rise. I arrived. 

I have seen him I have not seen I will do so since 

since Easter. him since. you wish it. 

How are such words to be distinguished ? 

If the word in question governs a noun or pronoun, it 
is a Preposition. But to distinguish Adverbs from Con- 
junctions is often a difficult matter, for there are many 
adverbs, such as when, where, how, which join sentences 
and therefore do the work of conjunctions. Such words are 
best called Conjunctive Adverbs, though they are sometimes 
spoken of as Adverbial Conjunctions. 

154. Position of the Adverb. — Adverbs may often 
be moved about in a sentence without destroying its gram- 
matical structure. Thus, in the sentence, ' Meanwhile the 
mob continued shouting/ we may shift the adverb mean- 
while and put it after mob, after continued, or after shouting. 
But in many instances the meaning is affected by the change 
of position. This is especially the case with only, an 
adverb which is frequently misplaced. Take, for example, 
the sentence, ' I fancy he asked you to tell her,' and insert 
only in eight different places. The result will be that you 
get seven different meanings 1 . 

155. Use of 'Very/ — We can use very to qualify Adjectives and 
Adverbs, but we cannot use it to qualify Participles. Before Participles 
we must say very much. When, however, Participles are employed as 

1 Seven, not eight, for 'only her' means the same as 'her only.' 
Only must not be placed between to and tell. The insertion of an 
adverb between to and the verb is contrary to English idiom. This 
faulty construction is commonly called 'the split infinitive.' Avoid 
saying 'to thoroughly master/ 'to utterly destroy.' Say 'thoroughly 
to master,' or 'to master thoroughly,' 'utterly to destroy,' or 'to destroy 
utterly.' 



SYNTAX. 103 

Adjectives, they may be qualified by very. Thus, we may say, 'He 
spoke in a very injured tone,' but not 'He was very injured': in the 
latter case we must say, ' He was very much injured.' 

156. Construction of 'Than.' — As than is now simply a conjunc- 
tion, it should be followed by the same case as the case of the word 
denoting the thing with which the comparison is made. Thus, ' I like you 
better than he/ and 'I like you better than him,' are both correct, but 
with different meanings. Supplying the ellipses, we get in the former 
sentence, 'I like you better than he likes you' \ in the latter, ' I like you 
better than / like him.' 

157. Ellipsis a cause of error. — Ellipsis, arising from the desire to 
be brief, is a frequent cause of error. We say, ' You are as good or 
better than he,' where as is required after good to make the sentence 
formally correct. So, again, in the sentence, 'You work harder but 
not so successfully as he,' harder requires than. To supply these 
missing words and to say, 'You are as good as or better than he,' 'You 
work harder than but not so successfully as he,' would be to employ 
modes of speech too elaborately precise for every-day purposes. We can 
steer clear of an error of syntax on the one hand, and of pedantry on the 
other, by saying, 'You are as good as he, or better,' 'You work harder 
than he does, but not so successfully.' 

158. Omission of 'That.' — The conjunction that is often omitted; 
'He said (that) he was going,' 'I thought (that) I had done it.' 

159. Correlative Conjunctions. — Conjunctions which occur in 
pairs are called Correlative. Such are though... yet, either... or ', whether 
...or, both... and. 

Be careful, when you use the w T ord neither, to use nor as its corre- 
lative, not or. Be careful also to put neither in its right place, before 
the word which indicates one of the things to be excluded. If I say, 
'You neither eat butter or jam,' I make two mistakes in the same sen- 
tence : or should be nor, and neither should be placed before butter. If 
I had said, 'You neither eat nor care for butter or jam,' the position of 
7ieither would have been right. 

SENTENCES FOR CORRECTION. 

Show that the following sentences are faulty, and correct them. 

1. Observing the house on fire, the engines were sent for. 

2. Being a warm day, I wore no overcoat. 

3. Standing on the bridge, the view is magnificent. 

4. Cheered by their approval, his progress was rapid. 

5. Sitting at the open window, a chill settled on his lungs. 



104 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

6. You ought not to use these kind of arguments. 

7. I hear that each of the policemen were injured. 

8. Each of the combatants think themselves right. 

9. Are either of these statements true ? 

10. Every one of the houses were flooded. 

11. None but the brave deserve the fair. 

12. Either of the two essays are good, but yours is the best. 

13. Of all other Constitutions, the English is the most perfect. 

14. Iron is more useful than any metal. 

15. The population of Glasgow is greater than Edinburgh. 

16. He won renown in the Old and New World. 

17. I saw a black and white man arm in arm. 

18. The chairman and secretary sat opposite each other. 

19. He walks just like a duck waddles. 

20. Nobody writes quite like you do. 

21. I am one of those who is disgusted at his conduct. 

22. This is one of the bedrooms that has a fire-place. 

23. Who is that parcel for? 

24. Whom do people say that he is ? 

25. Whom they were, I must not disclose. 

26. I can't think who he meant. 

27. Nothing but novels and plays interest him. 

28. The beauties of the landscape charms the tourist. 

29. The range of his accomplishments surprise me. 

30. Not a line of your verses are written correctly. 

31. Variety in one's amusements are desirable. 

32. The jury were unanimous in its opinion. 

33. The Nezvcomes were written by Thackeray. 

34. The captain with the other officers were drowned. 

35. The building, in addition to its contents, were destroyed. 

36. They could not guess where I or my brother were. 

37. Our success or our failure generally depend on ourselves. 

38. Will you let my brother and I go for a walk ? 

39. I only want a few shillings to make up the amount. 

40. He will be very annoyed by your conduct. 

41 . They are worse off than us. 

42. He is as strong or stronger than I. 

43. No one plays more skilfully or as successfully as he. 

44. Neither his happiness or his misery were deserved. 

45. Everybody except he knows the reason. 

46. There is nobody but you and I that saw it done. 

47. Let this be a secret between you and I. 

48. This case is entirely different to that. 

49. I was there as well as him. 

$0. Your cousin is not so clever as her* 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Analysis of Sentences and Parsing. 

160. ^Two-fold Classification of Sentences. — 

By far the greater number of sentences express a Statement, 
or a Command, or a Question. There remains, however, 
still another type of sentence, which must be mentioned 
for the sake of completeness, — a sentence in which we 
give utterance to a Wish, but do not express the Wish in the 
form of a Statement. The following are examples of 
sentences of this sort: 'O that he were here!' 'May you 
prosper!' 'Heaven defend the right!' In poetry and on 
the stage, expressions such as these are to be met with, but 
in every-day life we make known our wishes in the form 
of statements, and say, ' I wish he were here,' ' I hope you 
will prosper/ ' I pray that Heaven will defend the right.' 

If we define a Sentence as the complete expression 
of a thought in words, our definition will cover the four 
varieties of sentences mentioned above, which are called 
respectively (i) Declaratory, (2) Imperative, (3) Interrogative, 
(4) Optative. 

You will find it useful at this point to read again §117, 
in the Chapter on Conjunctions. For a reference to this 
paragraph will remind you that Sentences may be classified, 
on quite a different principle, as Simple, Compound, or 
Complex. Sentences of these three kinds are distinguished 
as follows : — 

A Simple Sentence contains only one subject and one 
finite verb. 



io6 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

A Compound Sentence contains two or more inde- 
pendent clauses, joined by co-ordinating conjunctions. 

A Complex Sentence contains a clause introduced by 
a subordinating conjunction. 

Declaratory, Imperative, Interrogative, and Optative Sentences, 
may be either Simple, Compound, or Complex, in form. Thus, 'Go 
and see* is an Imperative Compound sentence; 'Go as soon as you 
can' is an Imperative Complex sentence: 'Did you find him and tell 
him?' is Interrogative and Compound; 'Did you tell him when you 
found him?' is Interrogative and Complex : 'May you win the prize and 
be happy' is Optative and Compound; 'May you be happy when you 
win the prize' is Optative and Complex. 

161. Sentences treated as Declaratory in 
Analysis. — In the Analysis of Sentences, the distinction 
between Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences, is of 
the highest importance. The distinction between Declara- 
tory, Imperative, Interrogative, and Optative Sentences, on 
the contrary, is here of no importance at all. For purposes 
of Analysis, we may treat every sentence as if it belonged 
to the Declaratory class. Thus, we may regard * Stand 
(you) there' as equivalent to ' You stand there'; 'Did you 
find him?' as equivalent to 'You did find him'; ' May you 
be happy!' as equivalent to 'You may be happy/ 

Hence we may fall back on our old description of a 
Sentence as a collection of words by means of which we say 
something about a thing. It is true that this description 
applies only to sentences in which assertions are made; 
but the parts of which any sentence, (whether it be Im- 
perative, Interrogative, or Optative), is made up, are the 
same as the parts of which the corresponding Declaratory 
sentence consists. And what we have to do, in analysing 
any sentence, is to break it up into these parts and to 
point out their relations. 

162. Subject and Predicate. — Now, whenever we 
make an assertion about a thing, we use a word to name the 
thing, and a word to express the assertion. These we call 
respectively Subject and Predicate, and both Subject and 



ANAL YSIS OF SENTENCES AND PARSING, 107 

Predicate, expressed or understood, every sentence must 
contain. 

The Subject of the sentence is the word which stands for 
the thing about which the assertion is made. 

The Predicate is the word by means of which the 
assertion is made. 

163. Different kinds of Subjects. — The Subject 
of a sentence must be a Noun or the equivalent of a 
noun. 'The following sentences illustrate different kinds of 
Subjects : — 

i . N oun : — ' Birds fly.' 

2. Pronoun :— * They were defeated/ 

3. Infinitive :—'To err is human.' 

4. Adjective with noun understood:— 'Rich and 
poor live together/ 

5. Noun-clause : — ' That he did it is certain.' 

164. Attributive Adjuncts of the Subject, — 
When the adjective white is joined to the noun horse, the 
noun is said to be expanded, or extended. White 
horse implies all the attributes or qualities of horse, and the 
attribute or quality of whiteness besides. Consequently, 
the application of the noun is limited. The things, to 
which we can give the name of white horse> are fewer than 
the things, to which we can give the name of horse, because 
the meaning of white horse includes the possession of a 
quality which is absent from every horse which is not white. 

Adjectives, or their equivalents, attached to nouns in 
this way, are called Attributive Adjuncts: — 'Attributive,' 
because they imply the possession of attributes or qualities; 
'Adjuncts,' because they are joined on to the nouns. 

Attributive Adjuncts are of the following kinds : — 

1 . Adjective : — ' Good wine needs no bush. ' 

1. Noun in Apposition 1 : — 'Turner, the artist, died at Chelsea. 

1 When a noun is used to explain another, it is put in the same case, 
and is said to be in Apposition. 



108 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS, 

3. Noun in the Possessive Case : — 'Lucy's love restrained him/ or 
its equivalent with of, 'The love of Lucy restrained him/ 

4. Adjective-clause : — 'The man who stole the money was arrested.' 

5. Adjective-phrase: — 'The man, unsuspicious of any charge 
against him, left the town.' 

6. Participle :— 'The army retired, defeated and desponding? 

165. The Object and its Adjuncts. — A Transitive 
Verb is followed by a Noun as its Object. You have seen 
what substitutes can be used for the noun when it stands 
as Subject of a Sentence. Just the same substitutes can 
be used for the noun as Object. You have also seen how 
the Subject can be enlarged, or expanded, by Attributive 
Adjuncts. Just the same enlargements, or expansions, can 
be applied to the Object. Make sentences containing these 
substitutes for the noun as Object, and other sentences in 
which the Object is enlarged, or expanded, by Attributive 
Adjuncts. 

166. Complement of Predicate. — The Predicate 
is a verb, or contains a verb. The sentence 'Birds fly' 
contains a complete predicate 'fly.' But in 'They are/ 'I 
shall be,' 'You became/ something is wanting to make sense; 
the verbs are incomplete predicates and require a Comple- 
ment to produce a meaning: e.g. 'They are happy] 'I shall 
be there] ' You became secretary? 

Again, some verbs need another verb in the Infinitive 
mood to carry on, or complete, their construction. Thus, 
' I wish/ ' You must/ are meaningless unless we supply, in 
thought or expression, some complement; e.g.* I wish to go] 
'You must remain? These infinitives are called Pro- 
lative. 

167. Adverbial Adjuncts of Predicate. — Just as 
an Adjective limits the application of a Noun, so an Adverb 
limits the application of a Verb. ' Sings sweetly' cannot be 
affirmed of as many individuals as simply 'sings/ but it 
signifies more. When we say of a prima donna, 'She 



ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES AND PARSING. 109 

sings sweetly/ our statement goes further in the way of 
conveying information than the statement that ' She sings.' 
We may therefore describe the adverb sweetly as an en- 
largement or extension of the Predicate sings, because 
it adds to the meaning of the Predicate, though it narrows 
or restricts its application. 

The principal Adverbial Adjuncts by which the Predicate is ex- 
tended or expanded are these : — 
1 . Adverb : — * He batted well. ' 
1 . Adverbial clause : — * He left when I arrived. ' 

3. Adverbial phrase : 'He batted in fine style.'' 

4. Nominative Absolute: — 'The door being open, the steed was 
stolen. ' 

The last is a particular kind of Adverbial Phrase. 

168. Clause and Phrase. — We have spoken of an 
Adjectival Clause, an Adverbial Clause, and of an Adjec- 
tival Phrase, an Adverbial Phrase. Note the difference of 
meaning between the terms Clause and Phrase. A collection 
of words, forming a part of a sentence, is called a Clause, if 
there is a finite verb amongst them : if there is no finite verb 
amongst them, it is called a Phrase. 

To illustrate this distinction, let us take the following sentence: 
'The boy got the prize.' We enlarge the subject boy with an Adjectival 
Clause, when we say, 'The boy, who was industrious, got the prize'; 
we enlarge the subject boy with an Adjectival Phrase, when we say, 
'The boy, possessed of industrious habits, got the prize.' In like 
manner, we enlarge the predicate got with an Adverbial Clause, when 
we say, 'The boy got the prize because nobody else went in for it'; we 
enlarge the predicate^?/ with an Adverbial Phrase, when we say, 'The 
boy got the prize in a very easy fashion.' 1 

169. Hints for the Analysis of a Sentence. — 

We saw that, for purposes of Analysis, every sentence, 
whether Imperative, Interrogative, or Optative, might be 
treated as if it were a Declaratory sentence. It will simplify 
matters, if we confine our attention to sentences in which 
assertions are made, and the results can be readily applied 
to sentences expressing a Command, a Question, or a 
Wish. 



no ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

Suppose, then, that a sentence is placed before you, 
and that you are told to analyse it. How are you to go to 
work? Read it through and ask yourself the questions, — 
'What is the thing that it tells me about?' and 'What does 
it tell me about the thing V The word, which stands foi 
the thing, is the Subject. The word, by means of which the 
statement is made, is the Predicate. If the sentence consists 
of only two words, the analysis is soon done. The sentence, 
'Time flies/ is analysed when you have put down * Subject, 
Time^ Predicate, flies? But perhaps the Sentence contains 
twenty words, or fifty words. No matter how long it is; 
in every case you will find that there is some word standing 
for the thing about which the assertion is made. Find 
this Subject and its Predicate. Find the Object, if there is 
one. Then look for all the Adjuncts which cluster round 
them. If the sentence contains any subordinate clauses, 
find in like manner the Subject, Predicate, and Object, with 
their Adjuncts, of each subordinate clause. When every 
part of the original sentence has been accounted for in this 
way, you have analysed the sentence. 

To learn how to analyse sentences correctly, two things 
are requisite : practice and common sense. You may find 
the following suggestions of some help at the start, and the 
examples of analysis in tabular form useful for occasional 
reference later on; but rules, repeated by rote, will never 
serve as substitutes for the use of your brains in the Analysis 
of Sentences. 

i. Take a large sheet of paper, divide it into columns, and write 
headings, following the tabular forms given on pp. 1 1 2—3 as your guide. 

2. Read the passage over and consider carefully whether it is a 
Simple, a Compound, or a Complex Sentence, with which you are dealing. 
Describe it accordingly at the top of the page. Remember that, wherever 
you find a finite verb, you have got a separate clause. Supposing that 
the Sentence is Complex, make sure that you pick out the Principal 
Clause correctly: a mistake here will turn the whole into nonsense. 
Then determine what is the relation of the different Subordinate Clauses 
to the parts of the Principal Clause. This general outline is the element 
of chief value in the entire product. 



ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES AND PARSING. 1 1 1 

3. Write down the Principal Clause at the head of your analysis. 
Find its Subject ; then find its Predicate ; then, if the verb is transitive, 
set down the Object. 

4. If a Noun-clause forms the Subject or Object of the Principal 
Sentence, you must insert this Noun-clause, when you write the Principal 
Clause at the head of your analysis. Thus, in the Complex Sentence 
'How he did it is not certain,' the words How he did it are the subject 
of the predicate 'is not certain.' In the Complex Sentence 'I know 
how he did it y the words how he did it are the object of the principal 
verb 'I know.' The sentence 'How he did it is not certain' should be 
written thus: — 'How he did it (Noun CI.) is not certain.' To describe 
as a Principal clause the words 'is not certain' without supplying 
their subject, would be absurd. Similarly, the sentence 'I know how 
he did it,' should be written in this form: — 'I know how he did it" 
(Noun CI.). 

5. Look for the Adjuncts of Subject, Predicate, and Object. 
The Adjuncts of the Predicate will be adverbial. The Adjuncts of the 
Subject or Object will generally be adjectival. 

6. If a sentence is elliptical, add what is wanting. Supply the 
subject to sentences containing a verb in the Imperative mood. 'Come' 
must be treated as if it were 'Thou come' or 'You come.' 'I am 
stronger than you' in full is 'I am stronger than you are strong'; 'I am 
as strong as you' in full is 'I am as strong as you are strong? The 
clauses in italics are adverbial adjuncts. 

7. Deal with the Subordinate Clauses as you have dealt with the 
Principal Clause, setting out the Subject, Predicate, and Object of each, 
with their respective Adjuncts, in the proper columns. 

170. Examples of Analysis in tabular form. 

A. Breathes there the man with soul so dead ? 
Who never to himself hath said, 

' This is my own, my native land !' 

B. We left behind the painted buoy, 

That tosses at the harbour-mouth; 
And madly danced our hearts with joy, 

As fast we fleeted to the South. 
How fresh was every sight and sound 

On open main or winding shore ! 
We knew the merry world was round, 

And we might sail for evermore. 



ii2 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

A. A Complex Sentence : 

Principal Clause, 'Breathes there the man.' 



Sentence or Clause 


Kind of 
Sentence 


Subject 


Adjuncts of Subject 




Breathes there the man . . . 
...my native land 


Complex 


man 


i . with soul so dead 
2. who never... land 




Who never to himself... 
...my native land 


Complex 
Adj. CI. 
lim. man 


who 






This is... my native land 


Noun CI. 


this 







B. Contains three Sentences, (I.) Compound and Complex. 
(II.) Compound. 
(III.) Complex. 
Principal Clauses of (I.), i. We left behind the painted buoy. 
2. Madly danced our hearts with joy. 



Sentence or Clause 


Kind of 
Sentence 


Subject 


Adjuncts of 
Subject 




(I.) i. We left behind... 
. . .harbour-mouth 


Complex 


we 






That tosses... mouth 


Adj. CI. 
lim. buoy 


that 






2. Madly danced... 
...the south 


Complex 


hearts 


our 




As fast we the 

south 


Adv. CI. 
lim. danced 


we 






(II.) i — 4. How fresh was... 
...shore 


Compound 


sight ) 
sound) 


jon main 
(on shore 




(III.) We knew... evermore 


Complex 


we 






1. The merry... round 


Noun CI. 


world 


merry 




2. We might... evermore 


Noun CI. 


we 







ANAL YSIS OF SENTENCES AND PARSING. 1 » 3 



Predicate 



breathes 
hath said 



is Incompl. 
my... land Compl. 



Adjuncts of 
Predicate 



there 



never, to himself 



Object 



This is my... land 



Adjuncts of 
Object 



was fresh. 



11. Every sight , 
i7 a \ on open mam 

■■ ^ ver y s . ou " d p 
3. Every sight / . -,. , 

D t? J & a c on winding shore 
4. Every sound ) & 

Prin. CI. of (III.), We knew j »• the "»!**"»? r / und (N? un CU 
v " ( 2. we might sail for ever (Noun CL). 





Predicate 


Adjuncts of 
Predicate 


Object 


Adjuncts of Object 




left 


behind 


buoy 


i, painted, 2, that 
tosses... mouth 




tosses 


at the... mouth 








danced 


i, madly, 2, with 
joy, 3, as fast 
...south 








fleeted 


1, fast, 2, to the 
south 








was Incompl. 
fresh Compl. 


how Adjunct of 
Compl. 








knew 




1 , the merry 
...round 

2, we might 
...evermore 






was Incompl. 

round Compl. 

might Inco7npl. 

sail Compl. 


for evermore 
Adj. of Compl. 







W. G. B. 



ii4 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

171. Directions for Parsing. — In parsing, we deal 
with every word in a sentence separately, stating (i) its 
Part of Speech, (2) its inflexion, if it has any, and (3) its 
syntactical relations with other words in the sentence. 
Thus parsing is concerned with both the etymology and 
the syntax of words, whilst analysis takes no cognisance 
of their etymology. 

To parse words belonging to the different Parts of 
Speech, give the following information : — 

1. Noun or Pronoun. State the kind of noun or pronoun, its 
gender, number, case, and give the reason why the word is in that case. 
The gender of a pronoun cannot always be determined. 

2. Adjective. State the kind of adjective and its degree, and what 
word it limits. As adjectives (except this and that) undergo no in- 
flexions of number, gender, or case, it is better to speak of them as 
limiting' nouns than as * agreeing ' with nouns. 

3. Verb. State the kind of verb, its voice, mood, tense, number, 
person; the subject with which it agrees, and its object, if it has one. 

Participle. State the kind of verb of which it is a participle, its 
voice and tense, and show which word it limits ; mention its object, if 
it has one. The participle used in combination with auxiliaries to form 
a compound tense need not be parsed separately, though it may be 
parsed in this way. So, shall have been beaten, were beating, may have 
been beating, are adequately parsed as compound tenses, but you should 
be able to state the construction of the separate words. 

4. Adverb. State the kind of adverb ; its degree, if it is an adverb 
of quality admitting of this modification : name the word which it 
limits, or 'qualifies.' The latter is the term generally used of adverbs. 

5. Preposition. Name the noun which it 'governs,' that is to say, 
the noun whose relation to other words it indicates. 

6. Conjunction. Say whether it is co-ordinate or subordinate, and 
point out what it joins. 

Use abbreviations, but take care that they are free from ambiguity. 
Use no abbreviation of fewer than three letters, and let the same 
abbreviation always stand for the same word. Prn. must not mean 
'pronoun' in one line and 'preposition' in another. Imper. might signify 
' impersonal, ' or 'imperfect,' or 'imperative.' In such cases, economy 
of letters is misleading. Give the particulars in uniform order and as 
concisely as possible. 



ANAL YSIS OF SENTENCES AND PARSING. 1 1 5 

172. Examples of Parsing. 

And while the wings of Fancy still are free, 
And I can view this mimic show of thee, 
Time has but half succeeded in his theft — 
Thyself removed, thy power to soothe me left. 



while 

the 
wings 

of 
Fancy 

still 
are 

free 
and 
I 
can 

view 

this 
mimic 
thee 
Time 

has 

succeeded 
but 
half 
his 

theft 
thyself 

removed 
thy 

to soothe 
me 



subord. adv. conjunc. joining Time has succeeded and wings 

are free. (Or conj. adv. of time.) 
demonst. adj., called def. art. — limiting wings. 
com. noun — neut. pi. nom. — subj. of are (free). 
prep. — gov. Fancy. 
com. noun, used here as a sing, noun — neut. sing. obj. — 

gov. by of. (Or here fern., Fancy being personified.) 
adv. of time — -qualif. are free. 
verb defect, intrs. of incompl. predic. — act. indie, pres. pi. 

3rd — agreeing with wings. 
adj. of quality, — posit. — compl. of pred. are. 
coord, conj. — joining wings are free and I can view. 
pers. pron. of ist pers. — sing. nom. — subj. of can (view). 
verb defect, intrs. of incompl. pred. — act. indie, pres. sing. 

ist — agreeing with /. 
verb trs. — act. infin. pres. — prolat. infin. depending on can : 

has for obj. show. 
demons, pronom. adj. — sing. — limiting show. 
adj. of qual. — posit. — lim. show, 
pers. pron. of 2nd pers. — sing, obj.— gov. by of. 
sing, noun — masc. sing, nom., Time being here personified — 

subj. of has. 
verb trs. aux. — act. indie, pres. indef. sing. 3rd — forms with 

succeeded act. indie, pres. perf. of intrs. verb succeed. 
partic. past act. of intrs. verb succeed. 
adv. of degree — limiting half. 

adj. of quant, used as adv. of degree — lim. succeeded. 
possess, pronom. adj. (originally demons, pron. of 3rd pers. — 

masc. sing, possess.) — limiting theft. 
com. noun — neut. sing. obj. — gov. by in. 
reflex, pron. of 2nd pers. , used here with emphatic force for 

thou — sing. nom. absolute, 
partic. past pass, of trs. verb remove — lim. thyself. 
possess, pronom. adj. (originally pers. pron. of 2nd pers. — 

sing, possess.) — limiting power. 
verb trs. act. — gerundial infin. pres. — has for obj. me. 
pers. pron. of ist pers. — sing. obj. — gov. by soothe. 



n6 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS, 



PASSAGES FOR ANALYSIS. 

i« Fine feathers make fine birds. 

2. Evil communications corrupt good manners. 

3. Charity shall cover the multitude of sins. 

4. People who live in glass houses should never throw stones. 

5. No man can serve two masters. 

6. On a winged word hath hung the destiny of nations. 

7. Good words cost nothing and are worth much. 

8. We have scotched the snake, not killed it. 

9. Remember Lot's wife. 

10. Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. 

11. Can the Ethiopian change his skin ? 

12. Every man shall bear his own burden. 

1 3. What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue ! 

14. He doeth much, that doeth a thing well. 

15. When Greek joined Greek, then was the tug of war. 

16. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 

17. Who knows not that Truth is strong ? 

18. O, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! 

19. As we advance in life, we learn the limits of our abilities. 

20. If the sky fall, we shall catch larks. 

21. They, whom truth and wisdom lead, 
Can gather honey from a weed. 

22. Cowards die many times before their deaths : 
The valiant never taste of death but once. 

23. Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep. 

24. Truth provokes those whom it does not convert. 

25. Ignorance shuts its eyes and believes it is right. 

26. Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. 

27. They never taste who always drink, 
They always talk who never think. 

28. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. 

29. But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page 
Rich with the spoils of Time did ne'er unroll ; 
Chill penury repressed their noble rage, 
And froze the genial current of the soul. 

30. Childhood shows the man as morning shows the day. 

31. If a man write a book, let him set down only what he knows. 

32. Those only deserve a monument who do not need one. 



ANAL YSIS OF SENTENCES AND PARSING, t i 7 

33. Make hay while the sun shines. 

34. Be wise to-day ; 'tis madness to defer. 

35. Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves 
understand. 

36. Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more 
bitter. 

37. Pin thy faith to no man's sleeve: hast thou not two eyes of 
thine own ? 

38. I do not love thee, Dr Fell, 
The reason why I cannot tell. 

39. How doth the little busy bee 
Improve each shining hour ! 

40. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice ; 
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. 

4T* The evil that men do lives after them : 

The good is oft interred with their bones. 

42. Though little fire grows great with little wind, 
Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all. 

43. Care that has entered once into the breast 
Will have the whole possession ere it rest. 

44. Chance will not do the work. Chance sends the breeze. 
But if the pilot slumber at the helm, 

The very wind that wafts us towards the ports 
May dash us on the shelves. 

45. To know 
That which before us lies in daily life 
Is the prime wisdom. 

46. You take my house, when you do take the prop 
That doth sustain my house. 

47. O, what a tangled web we weave 
When first we practise to deceive ! 

48. And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew 
That one small head could carry all he knew. 

49. What's in a name ? That which we call a rose 
By any other name would smell as sweet. 

50. How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 
To have a thankless child ! 

51. Each change of many-coloured life he drew, 
Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new. 

52. His death eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the 
public stock of harmless pleasure. 



n8 ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR BEGINNERS. 

53. I could a tale unfoJd whose lightest word 
Would harrow up thy soul. 

54. Maid of Athens, ere we part, 
Give, oh give me back my heart ! 

55. How far that little candle throws his beams I 
So shines a good deed in a naughty world. 

56. The wretch, condemned with life to part, 

Still, still on hope relies ; 
And every pang that rends the heart 
Bids expectation rise. 

57. I hear a voice you cannot hear, 

Which says I must not stay ; 
I see a hand you cannot see, 
Which beckons me away. 

58. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 

59. How small, of all that human hearts endure, 
The part which laws or kings can cause or cure ! 

60. He prayeth well, who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast. 

61. If honour calls, where'er she points the way, 
The sons of honour follow and obey. 

62. Woe does the heavier sit 
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne. 

63. Great deeds cannot die ; 

They with the sun and moon renew their light, 
For ever blessing those that look on them. 

64. Music, when soft voices die, 
Vibrates in the memory ; 
Odours, when sweet violets sicken, 
Live within the sense they quicken. 

^ 65. Now, reader, you've come to the end, 
And how have you fared by the way ? 



INDEX. 



A. impure, 6 ; and an, 41 

Absolute nominative, 91 

Abstract nouns, 21 

Accidence, defined, 24 

Address, nominative of, 36, 91 

Adjectives, defined, 39; comparison of, 
41 ; followed by objective, 95 

Adjective clauses, 82 

Adjunct, attributive, 107; adverbial, 109 

Adverbs, function of, 76 ; classified, 77 ; 
syntax of, 102 

Adverbial adjuncts, 109; clauses, 82, 
109; object, 53 

Alphabet, 8 

An, a, uses of, 41 

Analysis, directions for, 109 

Anomaly in nouns, 30 

Antecedent to relative, 48 

Apostrophe in possessive, 36 

Apposition, 107 

Archaic plural forms, 30 

Articles, uses of, 40; syntax of, 95 

Attributive adjunct^ 107; use of ad- 
jectives, 39 

Augmentatives, 86 

Auxiliary verbs, 74 

Be, conjugation of, 61 

C, redundant letter, 9 

Capital letters, use of, 11 

Cases, defined, 35 ; how to determine, 

38; syntax of, 91 
Clause, denned, 82, 109 
Cognate objective, 53 
Collective nouns, 21 ; syntax of, 98 
Common nouns, 19 
Comparison of adjectives, 41 : irregular, 

42 ; syntax of, 94 
Complement of predicate, 55 
Complex sentence, 81, 106 
Compounds and derivatives, 85 
Concord, defined, 90 ; of nouns and pro- 
nouns, 96 ; of relative, 96 ; of verbs, 

98 
Concrete nouns, 21 
Conjugation, defined, 74 ; of be % 61 ; 

of simple tenses, 74 
Conjunctions, defined, 80; classified, 83 ; 

syntax of, 103 
Conjunctive pronouns, 48; adverbs, 77, 

83 



Consonants, defined, 5 
Coordinating use of relative, 50 

Dative, survival of, 47 

Declension, denned, 35 

Deficiency of alphabet, 9 

Demonstrative pronouns, 47 

Derivation and composition, 85 

Diminutives, 86 

Diphthongs, 6 

Distributive pronouns, 50 ; syntax of, 94 

Double femi nines, 26 

E, addition of mute, 10 

Ellipsis, with possessive, 92 ; a source of 
error, 103 ; supplied in analysis, 111 

Enlargement of subject, 107 ; of predi- 
cate, 109 

Etymology, defined, 12 

Expedients, orthographical, 10 

F, plural of nouns ending in, 29 
Factitive verbs, 91, 93 

Finite and Infinite verbal forms, 69 
Foreign plural forms, 30 

Gender, 25 
Gerund, 71 

Government, defined, 90 
Grammar, defined, 2 ; parts of, 3 

Have, with participle, 73 
Hybrids, 86 
Hyphen, place of, 89 

I, diphthong, 6 

Imperative mood, 60 

Imperfect tenses, 63 

Impersonal verbs, 56 

Indefinite article, 41 ; pronouns, 50 ; 

tenses, 62 ; Present, uses of, 63 
Indicative mood, uses of, 60 
Indirect object, 38; after passive verbs, 

59 ; narrative, 100 
Infinitive mood, 70 ; prolative, 108 ; 

split, 102 
Inflexions, defined, 12 ; few in English, 24 
Interjections, 84 
Interrogative pronouns, 48 
Intransitive verbs, 53 
It, anticipatory subject, 96 
Its, 47 



120 



INDEX. 



J, redundant letter, g 

Like, 95 

Meseems, methinks, 56 
Moods, 59 
My, mine, 50 
Myself, 47 

Neither, error in use of, 103 
Nominative, how to find, 38 ; absolute, 

91 ; of address, 36; uses of, 91 
Notional verbs, 55 
Nouns, 19 ; gender of, 24 ; number of, 

28 ; case of, 33 ; distinguished from 

pronouns, 45 ; verbal, 72 ; syntax of, 

90 
Noun clauses, 81 ; in analysis, 111 
Number, in nouns, 28; in verbs, 64 
Numerals, 40 

O, impure, 6 ; plural of nouns in, 29 
Object, defined, 53 ; direct and indirect, 

36; retained, 59; enlargement of, 108 
Objective case, how to tell, 38 ; cognate, 

53 ; syntax of, 93 
Oblique narrative, 100 
Only, place of, 102 
Order, a part of syntax, 90 
Orthoepy, 3 
Orthography, 3 

Parsing, directions for, 114 

Participles, defined, 72 ; used absolutely. 
91 ; past with have % 73 ; not qualified 
by very, 102 

Parts of speech, 12 

Passive voice, 57 

Perfect and Imperfect tenses, 63 

Person, 65 

Personal pronouns, 46 

Phonology, 3 

Phrase, defined, 109 

Pleonasm, 92, 95 

Possessive case, 36 ; syntax of, 92; pro- 
nouns, 50 

Predicate, defined, 52, 107 ; complement 
of, 55 ; enlarged, 109 

Predicative use of adjectives, 39 

Prefixes, 87 

Prepositions, 78; compared with cases, 
34 

Present Indefinite, uses of, 63 

Prolative Infinitive, 108 

Pronouns, 45 ; classified, 46 ; syntax of 
96 



Q, redundant letter, 9 
Quasi-passive verbs, 59 

Reflexive pronouns, 47 

Relative pronouns, 48 ; syntax of, 96 

Reported speech, 100 

Retained object, 59 

Semi -vowels, 7 

Sentence, defined, 80, 105 ; kinds of, 81 

Sequence of tenses, 99 

Sounds, elementary, 4 

Spelling, difficulties of English, 11 

Spinster, 26 

Strong verbs, 64 ; list of, 66 

Subject of sentence, 52, 98, 106 ; different 

kinds of, 107 ; enlargement of, 107 
Subjunctive mood, 60 
Subordinate clauses, 81 
Suffixes, 86 

Syllables, words divided into, 89 
Syntax, defined, 90 

Table of feminine endings, 25 ; plurals, 
28; pronouns, 46; tenses, 61; conju- 
gation, 74 
Tense, 61 

Than, syntax of, 103 
That, a relative, 49 ; omission of, 103 
The, uses of, 40 ; syntax of, 95 
To, omitted before infinitive, 71 

U, diphthong, 6 

Verbs, defined, 52 ; kinds of, 53 ' in- 
flexions of, 57 ; voice, 57 ; mood, 59 ; 
tense, 61 ; weak and strong, 64 ; num- 
ber, 64; person, 65; infinitive, 70; 
conjugation, 74 ; syntax of, 98 

Verbal noun, 72 ; forms in -ing t 70 ; why 
confused, 73 

Vocative, 36 

Voice, 57 

Vowels, 5 ; natural vowel, 6 

W, semi -vowel, 7 
Weak verbs, 64 ; list of, 67 
Who and that distinguished, 49 
Words, how classified, 13 

X, redundant letter, 9 

Y, semi -vowel, 7 ; plural of nouns end- 
ing in, 29 ; comparison of adjectives 
ending in, 42 ; changed in verbs, 65 

Z, represents different sounds, 7 



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